Miscellang.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 30, 3 February 1877, Page 2

Miscellang.

Waterproof Tissues and Paper. — Bichromate of potassa has the property of rendering glue and gelatine insoluble in water. Thus paper and stuffs of cotton, linen, .or silk, if once coated with this insoluble glue, become perfectly impervious. To render glue insoluble, it is sufficient to add, to the water in which it ia dissolved, ono part of bichromate to fifty parts of gelatine.. The addition is only made at the moment when the liquid I is, to be used. The process is conducted | in full daylight. The Japanese make their umbrellas with paper prepared in this manner. Gallium. — This new name in chemical science belongs to the sixty-fourth and last discovered elementary body. It was first detected, last autumn, by M. Lecoq de Boisbrandau, in> a spectroscopic examination he was making of a substance taken from the Argelea valley in the Pyrenees. He afterwards succeeded in obtaining it in the metallic state. When highly polished, it is somewhat whiter in colour than platinum. Its spectrum consists of two narrow violet bands of unequal brilliancy. By this means it can be, detected in a drop of liquid in which not more than one-hundredth part of a milligram had been . previously dissolved — a milligram being equivalent to 0.015 grains nearly. Fineness of a Spider's Web.— A spider's thread placed beside the hair of a man's beard, appeared under the microscope to be only the one-hundredth of the hair in diameter. If we suppose such hair frvhft _,f a rnnhct form, ife fn»l»n_ra »___ fob

: .... ...-.- ■- ■ ai»>\ —~- hundred young spiders at the time when they begin to open their webs are not larger than a full-grown one, and that each of these spiders possesses the same organs aa the larger ones ; it follows that the exceedingly small threads spun by these little creatures must he still four hundred times slenderer, and that consequently four millions cf these minute spiders' threads cannot equal in substance tlie size of a single hair. Texts from the Talmud. — If thy wife be small, bend down to her and speak to her ; do nothing without.* her advice. Everything in life can be replaced : the wife of early days is irreplaceable. An honourable man honours his wife ; a contemptible one despiseth her. The loss of a first wife is like the loss of a man's sanctuary in his lifetime. Man and wife well matched have heaven's glory as their companion ; man and woman ill matched are encircled by a devouring fire. Rather any ache than heartache ; rather any evil than an evil wife. A man who takes a wife for the sake of her money rears ill-behaved children.