Miscellaneous. A Lucky Inventor.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1967, 14 February 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Miscellaneous. A Lucky Inventor.

Tnrc Milling If o??(faays that Georgo Westinghouse, before he invented and perfected his well known air brake, was regarded by a number of his then acquaintances with something approaching pity, becauso of his alleged lack of " gumption." Ilia air brake was a success, and his friends began to think thero was something in him alter nil. His automatic engine added to his fame and bank balance 1 , and he mounted higher in the esteem of his former friends. A few weeks Ago a valuable well of natural gas was struck on his premises at llomewood, near Tittsburg. Tho well io 1,580 feet deep, and tho flow of gas in tremendous, the roar being almost deafening and soarcely endurable to the citizena of tho neighborhood. Two other wells are being put down by Mr. Westinghaupe, and he estimates that his profit therefrom will soon amount to $1,000 a day. We don't know what he wants with those wells, as he is not in straightened circumstances, but

if some of those former friends, adds the World, don't juet about bow down and worship him ere long, we'll miss our guesa.

Cement for Connecting ttlass ami Itrass. AcconniNf. to Pusoher (Ohevufor Zeituvg), a cement of the kind which htanda heat very well, and which is not dissolved by petroleum, and is therefore very adaptable for cementing the "brass burners on the glass reservoirs of petroleum lamps, is made by boiling 1 part of caustic soda and 3 parts of colophony with 5 parts of water, and kneading up the resin 'soap thus formed with half its weight of gypsum. Thus prepared, the cement hardens within about three-quartera of an hour. If zinc whito or whito lead is used in the place of gypsum, the hardening takes place more slowly.

Connected Twins. A most wonderful freak of nature recently occurred in the practice of Dr. J. Q. A. French, of Hillsboro, N 11., in tho birth of twin girls, united from armpit to hip by a bone serving as breast bone for the two. Otherwise they were fully and perfectly developed, each having a spinal column, from which the ribs extended to an attachment at the one sternum between them; arms, hands, feet, and legs in every way perfect, and no unplea3tnt feature about them. Life was extinct before they were both born, although one breathed for several minutes. The mother, Mra. Thompson, ia slowly recovering. The weight ol the strangely united couplet was thirteen pounds, and they are preserved for the benefit of those interested in medical science. — Scientific American.

To Remove Foreign Bodies from the Eye. BrKonc resorting to any metallic instrument for this purpose, Dr. C, D. Agnes (American Practitioner, May, 1881) would advise you to ueo an instrument made in the following manner : Take a ephnter of floft wood, pine or cedar, and whittle it into the shape of a probe, making it about the length of an ordinary dressing probe. Then take a small, loose flock of cotton, and, laying it upon your forefinger, place the pointed end of the stick in the centre of it. Then turn the flock of cotton over the end of the stick, winding it round and round, so as to make it adhere firmly. If you will look at the end of such a probe with a two-inch lens you will see that it is quite rough, tho fibres of cotton making a file-like extremity, in the midst of which are little interstices. As the material is soft, it will do no harm to the cornea when brushed over its surface. When ready to remove the foreign body, have the patient rest his head against your ohest, draw tho upper lid up with the forefinger of your left hand, and press the lower lid down with the middle finger, and then delicately sweep tho surface in which the foreign body is embedded, with the end of the cotton probe. When the foreign body is lodged in the centre of the cornea, it is most impojtant not to break up the external elastic lamina; for if you do, opacity may follow, and the filightcst opacity in the centre of the cornea will cause a serious diminution in the sharpness of vision.

Wind and Water. On argent rivers, lakes, and seas That How round blooming southern shores The torrid sun beats down, and frees Waters locked in lucent storesWaters murmurous as.the rune Of a vocal afternoon. Then toward the open blue of skies White vapors, spirits of Nature, rise : Ah ! let me watch the work of her, _ Nature, whoso vague unrest and Btir Are like the action of a brain That dreams till it is dust again, Yet in its dreaming recreates Life and its old pathetic fates. Nature in calm, perpetual lull Would be no longer beautiful. I'll let the hours go by, and sweep World wide on ethereal winga, As one may come and go in sleep, Mindless of sublunar things. In my roving thought I ccc The liquid vapor-air drift high, When part is changed mysteriously To rain that breaks from sombre cloud. And part ia borne along the sky, Beyond the thunder crashing cloudBorne by resistless wind that rolls From the equator to the poles. The storm has gloomed the sun ; but I Follow the wind in its wild, free course, A flying giant-god of force. North or south, I follow it still, Over continents, day and night, Now straight against some Alpine height Or Appalachian hill ; And now, above some Indian plain, The vapor forms new cloud and rain, And I watch the rain run quick in streams, Or through the earth in limpid springs, Back to this placid world of dreama Where the joyous mock-bird sings. I follow the aimless wind ; I see Vast untrodden fields of snow That stretch to where no man may go, From Greenland to the shores that are Unknown as the polar star. Out of the gray skies silently A cold and crystal storm blows past, Cutting the air with its frozen blast, While in desolate valley lands The hugh snow mountains grow, Then, at the touch of magic hands — Hands, I think, of weird device— The mountains mould themselves in ice— An interfluous masß that creeps Down to the emerald ocean deeps And at the Gateway of the north Cracks and thrusts the icebergs forth. Theee, like hills of winter, ride In slow procession, till they glide Back to the waters whence they came, Back to the glowing southern sea?, And, like dissolving pagentries, Melt in a mist of flame. Thus about the earth I trace The water's wild, protean race, And still at languid ease I Ho Noting the changes of the sky, While from some distant wood I hear The sweetest bird-songs of the year. — George Edgar Montgoviery in Ilarpert Bazaar.

Cicmi-ano. Tun Phrcnoloi/ical Journal has coined the above word»to meet recent microscopical discoveries, and proceeds to describe some of them as follows : — Wo are living in an ocean of infectious germs. So tho microßcopists tell us, With the recent improvement in lenses and methods of examination, a world of minute life has been revealod that should bo most startling to every one who reads about the spores, bacteria, bacilli, raicrococci, etc., etc., that render whatever we eat or drink tremulous with paraaitio life. Tho atmosphere teems with an infinite detail of germs, each one ready to pounce upon our soft tissues for a contribution to its greedy maw. Every breath takes in a countless host of these creatures to riot on our delicate " innards." What fastidious appetites the brutes must have 1 for some show a special preference for dainty protoplasmic bits of liver, or kidney, or heart ; while others make imperative demands upon the choicest of our neurilemma, or are found at table in the most retired chambers of the brain. What are we to do about it ? Munt all our fair dreams of development, progress, civilisation, be regarded as arrant deluirions ; and must all our hopes of health and longevity go down before tho advancing hosts of invisible imps that Koch and Pasteur, Crudclli, and Schmidt and Grassi tell ub are only the vanguard of zymosis and contagion ? One tells us that we must beware of flies ; oven that familiar little impertinent that baa buz/ed in our homes for centuries, and has made himself welcome to everything nice on our dining table, is teeming with creatures whose names are witnesses to their terrible characters I —aa the tricocephalu* dispar, oxyuris vcrmicW'

laris, tcenia solimm, odimo lactis, and so on. Even our books and newspapers, freshly drawn from the vendor's shelves, and apparently pure and bright, are loaded with infectious little pefunps. A German, who Fquints through high p.npJpd objectives, points a new moral to the old apostolic warning of evil in many, by assuring us that the loose change we may jingle in our pockets is coated with animal life, very dangerous to health ; and then, 0 oyster and clam eater I know that in the tissues of your favorite bivalve lurk those relontless foes of family peace, Bcarlatina, diphtheria, and other frightful things whose habitat is the human fauces 1 We tremble as we contemplate the situation. What are we going to do about it ? Oh, let the manufactures of disinfectants ba multiplied; let the disease-breeding atmosphere be mado redolent with sulphur fumes, carbolic aoid, chloride of lead, zinc, copperas 1 and let everything that ia germicidal ba thickly spread over our food and drink I Hurry, hurry, hurry, ye chemists, with your potent mixtures, and relieve us from being the unwilling habitations of lively bacteria and bacilli, of ttrnia and ascaride, who aresworn against our mortal comfort and physical integrity.

A telegram that frightened a gentleman's family terribly, who were atayingat a country reaidenco, was once received by his coachman, who had been instructed by letter to be at the station, and await his arrival on a certain day. While waiting, the coachman received the following despatch :—" Accident, Mr. B. remains come next train." In consequence of the lack of & comma after remains," Mr. 8., on his arrival, found an undertaker and his assistants waiting at the station to convey his "remains" to hia bereaved family.

Rev. John Wesley a Mason. Ely.D. W. Bull, of Transfer, Mercer Co., has some intpiesting relics of John Wcsloy, the founder of Methodiain. They consist of a Royal Arch Masonic apron, receipts of lodge dues paid by Wesley to the lodge of which he was a member, extending over a period of gome fifteen years, and a number of^ books from Wesley's private library, containing his autograph. The Masonic apron is 153 years old. These relics were purchased by R r v. Mr. Bull's grandfather at the public auction of Wesley's personal effeots after his death. — Philadelphia Chronicle-Herald.