Chapter 7

There is nothing more reassuring in these days, when new "isms" of the scientists are slowly sapping the foundations of cherished beliefs, than to remember that, after all, the much vaunted dicta of Nature are yet opposable by the sound operations of honest common sense. See for example how one of our evening dailies, tossing the dogmas of so-called science contemptuously aside, evolves such profoundly original thoughts as these, to explain the lucid blue glass theory of General Pleasonton: "The blue glass presents an obstruction to the sun's rays which can only be penetrated by one of the seven primary rays--the blue ray; the remaining six rays, travelling with the velocity of 186,000 miles a second, falling upon the blue glass, are suddenly arrested; the impact evolves upon the surface of the glass friction, heat, electricity and magnetism; the heat expands the molecules of the glass, and a current of electricity and magnetism passes through it into the room; this current, falling upon animal or vegetable life within, stimulates it to unusual vigor. Certainly the results achieved, and abundantly certified to, are marvellous, and sufficient to provoke further experiments and inquiry." Prior to these splendid original discoveries of our contemporary, we ignorantly believed that blue glass only partially sifted out the orange and yellow rays from the spectrum, and that with this exception, it acted merely as a screen to diminish the intensity of all the rays. We also supposed that there was a sharp distinction to be drawn between sunlight after passing through blue glass and the blue spectral ray: that in one case all the colored rays were more or less present, and that in the other but one was. But think of the utter dismay of such pretenders as Helmholtz, Tyndall, and Henry when they learn that the undulatory theory of light with which they have so long taxed our credulity is overthrown--that of the seven primary rays, six bounce off from blue glass and distribute themselves over the adjoining neighborhood. That the glass is heated by the impact; and as the sun persistently emits more rays, there are more impacts and more heat. The glass gets hotter and hotter; but--mark the scientific acumen here--just as we are wondering whether it will reach the melting point, the pores open. It is the Turkish bath of Nature. Electricity and magnetism, no longer shut out, rush in between the separate molecules. Hand in hand, these great curative powers seek a proper subject. They meet (we learn from a report, also in our contemporary, of Pleasonton's latest triumph) a pig or a young lady whose hair has come out--a heifer, a rooster, or a rheumatic child. Forthwith the pig fattens, hair equal to that produced by the finest _tricopherus_ pervades the female scalp, and "unusual vigor" and general happiness prevail. Such is the boon which Pleasonton bestows on humanity, as elucidated by the original genius of our contemporary.

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INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROPAGATION.

In view of the alarming prevalence of scarlet fever in many parts of the country, the following hints by the _British Medical Journal_ are wholesome warnings: "There are three common ways by means of which infectious diseases may be very widely spread. It is a very usual practice for parents to take children suffering from scarlet fever, measles, etc., to a public dispensary, in order to obtain advice and medicines. It is little less than crime to expose, in the streets of a town and in the crowded waiting room of a dispensary, children afflicted with such complaints. Again, persons who are recovering from infectious disorders borrow books out of the lending departments of public libraries; these books, on their reissue to fresh borrowers, are sources of very great danger. In all libraries, notices should be posted up informing borrowers that no books will be lent out to persons who are suffering from diseases of an infectious character; and that any person so suffering will be prosecuted if he borrow during the time of his illness. Lastly, disease is spread by tract distributors. It is the habit for such well meaning people to call at a house where a person is ill and to leave him a tract. In a week or so the tract is called for again, another left in its place, and the old one is left with another person. It needs not much imagination to know with what result to health such a practice will lead if the first person be in scarlet fever or smallpox."

Dr. Hutton offers "a warning on the reckless manner in which parents allow their healthy children to run into the houses of acquaintances who have members of their families suffering from scarlatina, etc., and states that he has seen the infection thus carried from the patient, and several families attacked."

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TOUGHENED GLASS MAKING IN BROOKLYN.

A _World_ reporter has lately visited the works in Brooklyn where the manufacture of the La Bastie toughened glass is now in active progress. The manufacturer states that, in June last, his factory was destroyed by fire, and the introduction of the glass into our markets has for that reason been delayed. Only one kind of goods, lamp chimneys, are now made, and the process is as follows: A workman, having in his hand a pole about eight feet long, with a knob on the end of the size of a lamp burner, fits a chimney on the knob and plunges it into the flame of a furnace. He with-draws it twice or thrice that it may not heat too quickly, turning the pole rapidly the while, and when the glass reaches a red heat quickly shoots it into one of a dozen small baths fixed on a revolving table, and seizes another chimney. A boy keeps the revolving table always in position, and as the chimneys come around to him, having been the proper time in the bath, he takes them out to be dried, sorted, cleaned, and packed. The bath has to be of just the right temperature, as, if it be too hot or too cold, the chimneys are liable to explode. In either case the process of annealing is imperfect. By working the tables at a certain rate, the baths are kept at the right temperature by the immersion of the red hot glass. Oil or tallow is used in the bath. Any greasy substance will do, though tallow has proved most satisfactory.

M. De la Chapelle, the manufacturer, states that he has already sold $150,000 worth of the chimneys. The toughened chimneys are about 60 per cent dearer than those of ordinary glass. The factory is in Delavan street, Brooklyn, N.Y.

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ALEXANDER BAIN, ELECTRICIAN.

This ingenious man, whose inventions in connection with the electric telegraph entitle his name to be held in grateful remembrance, died in January last at the new Home for Incurables at Broomhill, Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, Scotland, and on Saturday his remains were interred in the burying ground in the neighborhood of that town known as the Old Aisle Cemetery. Mr. Bain, who was about sixty-six years of age, was a native of Thurso. He was the inventor of the electro-chemical printing telegraph, the electro-magnetic clock, and of perforated paper for automatic transmission of messages, and was author of a number of books and pamphlets relating to these subjects. Sir William Thomson, in his address to the Mathematical Section of the British Association at its meeting in Glasgow last year, said: "In the United States Telegraphic Department of the Great Exhibition at Philadelphia, I saw Edison's automatic telegraph delivering 1,015 words in 57 seconds. This was done by the long neglected electro-chemical method of Bain, long ago condemned in England to the helot work of recording from a relay, and turned adrift as needlessly delicate for that." Mr. Bain was stricken by paralysis, and suffered from complete loss of power in the lower limbs. For some time he had received a pension from the government, obtained for him, we believe, through the instrumentality of Sir William Thomson. Mr. Bain was a widower, and has left a son and daughter, the former of whom is in America, and the latter at present on the Continent. Photographs of him by Mayall were recently presented to the Society of Telegraph Engineers and the American Society of Telegraphers at Philadelphia. --_The Engineer._

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SELF-RELIANCE NECESSARY TO SUCCESS.

Self-reliance, conjoined with promptitude in the execution of our undertakings, is indispensable to success. And yet multitudes live a life of vacillation and consequent failure, because they remain undetermined what to do, or, having decided that, have no confidence in themselves. Such persons need to be assured; but this assurance can be obtained in no other way than by their own successes in whatever they may attempt for themselves. If they lean upon others, they not only become dissatisfied with what they achieve, but the success of one achievement, in which they are entitled to but partial credit, is no guaranty to them that, unaided, they will not fail in their very next experiment.

For want of self-reliance and decision of character, thousands are submerged in their first essays to make the voyage of life. Disappointed and chagrined at this, they underestimate their own capacities, and thenceforward, relying on others, they take and keep a subordinate position, from which they rise, when they rise at all, with the utmost difficulty. When a young man attains his majority, it is better for him, as a general rule, to take some independent position of his own, even though the present remuneration be less than he would obtain in the service of others. When at work for himself, in a business which requires and demands foresight, economy, and industry, he will naturally develop the strong points of his character, and become self-reliant.

A glance at the business men of any community will show who have and who have not improved the opportunities of their earlier years. The former transact their business with ease, promptitude, and profit. They rely upon themselves, and execute what they have to do with energy and dispatch. But those who shirked everything in their youth are compelled to rely on their clerks and salesmen for advice, and are never ready to act when occasions of profit arise. Many parents commit a lamentable error in this respect. They lead their children to believe that they can do nothing without the constant assistance of their superiors, and after awhile the child becomes impressed with that idea. Fortunate will it be for him when he emerges from the parental roof, if he can at once acquire the self-reliance which has been kept down at home--otherwise he must necessarily fail in whatever independent enterprise he undertakes; and in such a case, while the misfortune is his own, the fault lies at the door of misjudging parents rather than at his own.

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SOMETHING TO DO.

It is an old trick of despots, and a good one, to employ their subjects. Why? To keep them out of mischief, Employed men are most contented. There is no conspiracy. Men do not sit down and coolly proceed to concoct iniquity so long as there is plenty of pleasant and profitable employment for body and mind. Work drives off discontent, provided there is compensation in proportion to the amount of labor performed. There must be a stimulant. God never intended a man should sweat without eating of the fruits of his labor--reaping a reward--more than he intended the idle man should revel in plenty and grow gouty on luxuries. Industry is a great peacemaker--a mind-your-own-business citizen. Something to do renders the despairing good-natured and hopeful--stops the cry of the hungry, and promotes all virtue. The best men are the most industrious; the most wealthy work the hardest. They always find something to do. Do you ever wonder that men of wealth do not "retire" and enjoy their substance? We know some young men look forward with anticipation to the time of "retiring." It is doubtful if a man should ever retire from business as long as he lives. We think we know men who, were they to abandon business, would be ruined, not pecuniarily, but mentally--their lives would be shortened. God never intended man's mind should become dormant. It is governed by fixed laws. Those laws are imperative in their exactions.

Something to do! "Oh, if I had something to do!" There are young men who sigh for it, yet one thing they can do--that is, seek for a job. Once found, provided it is an honest one, do not hesitate to perform it, even if it does not pay as well as you expected.

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MONEYED MEN.

The Cleveland _Herald_ said, twenty years ago, during a stringency of the times, that moneyed men are the veriest cravens on earth: so timid, that on the least alarm they pull their heads, turtle-like, within their shells, and, snugly housed, hug their glittering treasure until all fear is removed. The consequence is that a few days' disturbance of the monetary atmosphere brings on a perfect dearth of not only the precious metals, but even of paper money, their representative. Moneyed men never adopt the tactics of mutual support; hence, as soon as a shot is fired into the flock, they scatter, each looking out for himself, each distrustful of the other, and each recognizing only the great law of selfishness, which is to take care of number one. Courage has saved many an army, even when ammunition was low; and many a foe has been scattered by one yell of defiance when there was not a cartridge left.

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NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

ARCHOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT. By S.V. Blakeslee. Price $1.25. New York and San Francisco: A. Roman & Co.

This book is a very metaphysical treatise on theories of government and the duties of citizens to the law, each other, and themselves. Theoretical politics are little in favor with thinking men of this day; and the social difficulties of our age will have to be solved by practical wisdom founded on experience. The people that knows that a certain course of legislation has destroyed an empire, and that a contrary policy has developed one, will care little as to whether or not "the will controls the feelings by mediate and indirect force." We are unable to find in this book any attempt to apply the finely worded theories stated to practical use and popular instruction in political science.

GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF ROOF TRUSSES, FOR THE USE OF ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS, AND BUILDERS. By Charles E. Greene, A.M., Professor of Civil Engineering in the University of Michigan. Chicago, Ill: George H. Frost.

The author of this work truly says that any designer who fairly tries the graphical method will be pleased with the simplicity and directness of the analysis, even for apparently complex forms. The hindrance to the general use of the method is the want of knowledge of the higher mathematics, which are largely used in most treatises on the subject. Professor Greene has avoided this stumbling block, and given us a treatise which may be understood and appreciated by any one of common school education. We therefore give his work a hearty commendation, and we hope that every carpenter and builder may be induced to analyze the stresses which affect the different parts of structures, which he can readily do by carefully reading this volume.

THE HUB: a Journal devoted to the Carriage Building Trades. Published monthly. Subscription price, $3.00 a year. New York city: The Hub Publishing Company, 323 Pearl street.

This journal is widely known for its accurate and extended information as to carriage building, trimming, lining, painting, etc.; and since its first issue it has maintained its reputation, and given the public an immense amount of instruction in a spirited and practical manner. The illustrations and typography are excellent, and every number shows how extended an area it serves as an authority on the important industry to which it is devoted.

ASSIGNATS AND MANDATS: the Money and the Finances of the French Revolution of 1789. By Stephen D. Dillaye. Price, free by mail, 30 cents. Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry Carey Baird & Co., 810 Walnut street.

Mr. Dillaye differs with the Hon. A.D. White, President of Cornell University, as to the relative merits of money and promises to pay money; and he begins with the assertion that the President's "object is to depreciate American credit, stability, and honor." Further perusal, to ascertain the meaning of this attack on a patriotic and useful member of society, shows us what Mr. Dillaye thinks he means. He talks of credit being the vital element of national power; and from this he argues that the more "credit" a nation has--that is, the deeper it is in debt--the more powerful it becomes. In short, he confuses credit as opposed to discredit with credit as opposed to cash--a grievous blunder, surely. A nation's credit is like a merchant's; it becomes greater only as his debts become smaller; and people trust a government for the same reason as they trust an individual, mainly because every previous obligation has been honorably observed. It is gratifying to know that persons of Mr. Dillaye's way of thinking are few and unimportant, and their number is diminishing daily.

CROTON WATER SUPPLY FOR THE CITY OF NEW YORK: an Address by George B. Butler to the New York Municipal Society. New York city: Published by Order of the Society, 87 Madison avenue.

A review of the whole subject of our water supply, its sources and the area they drain, the geographical features of the district, and the works erected by the city. Mr. Butler maintains that the Croton valley, with proper storage reservoirs, can abundantly supply the whole city; and that no new aqueduct need be constructed in the present condition of the public debt.

EINE KURZE ALLGEMEINE EINLEITUNG ZU DEN AROMATISCHEN NITROVERBINDUNGEN. Von Peter Townsend Austen. Leipzig, Germany: Winter, Publisher.

We are glad to see that an American is able to publish a very useful chemical treatise in Germany, the great head center of chemistry. Dr. Austen, one of our most distinguished young chemists in the field of original research, has produced a work which bears the marks of much patient thought and study. The book is dedicated to the renowned German chemist, Professor A.W. Hofmann.

OUR YOUNG FOLKS' MAGAZINE: a Monthly Journal of Instruction and Amusement. Subscription price, $1.60 a year. Boston, Mass.: Post Office Box 3090.

A readable little periodical, well calculated to amuse the little ones for whom it is intended.

GLASS FOR THE STUDIO AND DARK ROOM. By Thomas Gaffield. Philadelphia, Pa.: Benerman & Wilson.

There is much useful information in this little pamphlet, and photographers especially should read it. The matter first appeared in the Philadelphia _Photographer_.

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RECENT AMERICAN AND FOREIGN PATENTS

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NEW AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS.

IMPROVED GANG PLOW.

Ezra Peak, Montana, Kan.--This invention is so constructed that it may be easily raised from and lowered to the ground, and adjusted to work at any desired depth in the ground. It is claimed to be of lighter draft than plows constructed in the usual way, also to be simple in construction and inexpensive in manufacture. The wheels, the faces of which are notched to give them a slight up-and-down movement as they are drawn forward, slightly jar the plows, and thus cause them to be easier drawn than when smooth wheels are used. The shaft can be provided with a ratchet wheel and pawl to hold it in any position into which it may be turned; and to it is attached a rope or chain, the other end of which, is attached to the forward end of the frame, so that by turning the shaft the plows may be raised from, lowered to, and adjusted to work at any desired depth in the ground.

IMPROVED PLOW.

James Willis Hendley, Cedar Hill, N.C., assignor to David N. Bennett and Samuel T. Wright, of same place.--The objects here are simplicity and cheapness of construction, and such arrangement of parts as will prevent the plow becoming clogged with weeds, etc. The mold-board is welded to the land side, or cast in one piece with it, so that no brace or other connection is required between the mold-board and standard; secondly, the curved beam is attached to the heel of the land-side and supported by a brace, which is bolted to the middle portion of the latter, and arranged in such relation to the mold-board that a space is left between them, into which the trash will fall, and thus be drawn into the furrow and covered.

IMPROVED GRAIN DRILL.

George W. Osborn, Parkville, Mich.--This is an improved attachment for seed drills, for gaging the depth at which the grain shall be deposited in the earth. It consists in an adjustable spring gage bar attached to the shank of each drill tooth, whereby the teeth may be made to enter the ground a greater or less depth. It is claimed to ensure the planting of seeds at equal depth in hard or soft ground, and to diminish the draft.

IMPROVED HORSE HAY RAKE.

Joseph B. Wakeman and John L. Wager, Deposit, N.Y.--The construction of this implement is such that a large space is afforded beneath the rake head for the collection of hay. The pivots of said rake head back are also brought back, so that the teeth may be readily raised to discharge the collected hay. By an ingenious lever arrangement the driver is enabled to hold the rake to its work by the pressure of his foot, and also readily to discharge the hay gathered.

IMPROVED BEE HIVE.

George W. Akins, Bridgeton, Pa.--In this hive, holes are bored in the sides of the compartment for ventilation, and windows are flared for the purpose of inspecting the inside of the hive. A frame is used whenever it is desired to have the honeycomb of any particular shape. It consists of a form of tin or other suitable maternal, placed on a frame or slide, and having the shape required in the comb. Bees will build inside of the form, leaving about one fourth inch space between the form and the comb. The tin sheet receives a portion of the refuse matter, and can be readily taken out and cleaned. On the 1st of May the bees are driven out into another hive and the frames examined. Three frames are taken out and set in a new box, and three empty frames are put in their place. The old queen must be put with the new colony, and half of the bees must be put in each box and shut up, and put on a stand. The hives are to be opened the next morning. At the next natural swarming time the swarms can be again divided. The hive cannot freeze, and it is proof against mice.

IMPROVED PLOW STOCK.

Robert Weber, New Ulm, Texas.--In this invention, by loosening a nut, the point of draft attachment may be raised and lowered to cause the plow to work deeper or shallower in the ground, or turned to one or the other side, to cause the plow to take or leave land, and may be secured in place when adjusted by again tightening the nut.

IMPROVED COMBINED HAY TEDDER AND SIDE RAKE.