Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Erratum.—In the April number, the view of the upper surface of the brain, by mistake of the printer, was turned upside down—[see page 29]. The engraving on page 31 must be referred to, to illustrate the description in this number.
Co-operation is making great progress. A colony similar to that at Topolobampo is to be established on 3,000 acres at Puget Sound. Manufacturers are beginning to adopt the principle of giving a share of profits to their employees, but space forbids details. Topolobampo has 400 busy colonists, and is not ready yet for any more.
Emancipation.—Brazil has about a million of slaves. Emancipation is proceeding slowly. It may be thirty years before slavery shall be entirely extinguished.
Inventors.—A correspondent remarks very justly that “Inventors have rescued the race from primitive barbarism. They have transformed the primeval curse into a blessing. True saviors they, whose every gift has multiplied itself a thousand-fold by opening new fields of industry, and scattering luxuries even among the poorest. To the inventor, and not to the statesman, politician, or warrior, do we owe our present prosperity.”
Important Discovery.—“Tests were recently made at Louisville of a new and not expensive process for hardening and tempering steel, by which hardness and elasticity are carried forward in combination. A drill made of the new steel penetrated in forty minutes a steel safe-plate warranted to resist any burglar drill for twelve hours. A penknife tempered by the process cut the stem of a steel key readily, and with the same blade the inventor shaved the hairs on his arm. The inventor is a young blacksmith. He has also a new process for converting iron into steel.”
Saccharine.—This new substance said to be 200 times as sweet as sugar is manufactured from coal tar. It was discovered about six years ago in the laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, by Prof. Remsen and a student named Fahlberg, who has since taken out patents upon it. It is greatly superior to sugar, as it is free from fermentation and decomposition. A small quantity added to starch or glucose will make a compound equal to sugar in sweetness. It is a valuable antiseptic and has valuable medical properties.
Sugar has been discovered to have great value as an addition to mortar, as it has a solvent action on lime. An English builder wrote an important letter to the authorities of Charleston, S. C., on this subject, after that city had suffered from the earthquake.
Artificial Ivory.—We shall no longer need the elephant for ivory. Compounds of a celluloid character, made from cotton waste, can now be made hard as ivory, or flexible or soft as we wish. White and transparent, or brilliantly colored, it can be handled like wood cut and carved, or applied as a varnish. An artificial ivory of creamy whiteness and great hardness is now made from good potatoes washed in diluted sulphuric acid, and then boiled in the same solution until they become solid and dense. They are then washed free of the acid and slowly dried. This ivory can be dyed and turned, and made useful in many ways.