June.
THE AVEST SHORE.
177
MAKING SOAP.
Most people In the country prefer home-made
snap. 1 icy have the fat necessary in the shape
Ol refuse lanl tallow, bacon, skins, etc., ami the
potash of soda can DOW be easily obtained for
OH with much less labor than was formerly re
anind when the potash had to W extracted
from the pile of wood-ashes at home. Where
wood is used for fuel this ia yet done
If oue has no liomc.ma.le lye, bay c'nustie soda
-you can get it at any apothecary's if nowhere
else-Olid use it in this way: For bud soap take
cue POttnd of caustic soda, three pounds of fat,
nr live or HIV ii,. i;n. i- nf .i . i
I 11 re ""im.il ) NMI lai, alio.
three gallons of water; put all together in a
kettle over the lire and boll, adding three or
four handfuls of salt lielore the boiling is quite
liniahed: from two to thr... i,..,,,- :ii
1 necessary. The experienced soap-boiler will
know by its appearance when it has boiled
enough. The novice will soon leant
Where cauBtic soda cannot lie obtained get
coiumon washing or sal-soda, and by the addi
tiou of lime make it caustic, after the following
plan, which is the one generally- in use at the
present, and which makes an excellent soap:
lake six pounds of washing soda and three
jwunda of fresh, unslacked lime; place together
in any water-tight vessel an iron kettle is best
and pour on two gallons of boiling water; stir
occasionally until the lime is slacked and the
soda dissolved, then allow it to settle, 'lake
the clean lye from the top and jKmr it on the fat
of which three pounds common scrapings are
to be taken and commence boiling! then add
another gallon of water to the settlings of the
oda and lime, stirring a before. This lye is
then to be added to the other while boiling;
ash) throw in about six single handfuls of salt
about half an hour before it is done boiling.
Boil two hours.
Without the salt either of these methods will
make a semi-soft soap; but for a real soft soap
juttash must lie used. This you can buy for the
punHise; or, if you prefer, extract from wood
ashes by simply mixing a little fresh lime with
thera and pouring on water. An old band or
tub will do to hold them, if there is a hole in
the bottom for the liquid to drain out. The
ash-hoppers fonnerly used for this puqiose are
yet standing alongside of some outhouses on
many farms, hut Bcldom used now.
For toilet purposes a soap made with a vege
table oil is to be preferred eastile, palm, or co
coa rather than those highly iierftuned, but
which are aoinutimes mode from tliu most im
pure materials. If iierfumed soap i- wanted
the common soap alsive can Ik; melted, and iier
fume of any desired kind can be added; but it
will be rather strong for delicate skins, and cos
tile is much to I- preferred.
Soap-making need no longer lie dreaded by
the women to whose lot it falls, as, by the
methods we have given, as well as other similar
ones, all the soap needed in a family for six
months can le easily made in a single day.
It is sometimes said that the boine-niade soap
costs more than it could be bought for. Per
haps it does, but then yon have the satisfaction
of knowing from what it is made.
Kau de Coum.sk as an Anesthetic. At a
recent meeting of the Nice Society of Medicine,
Dr. Hugues presented some observations upon
the enawthetlc Inflneaoe of Kau do Cologne,
which he had recently noticed. I none instance,
that of a young lady altlicted w ith tulcreular
consumption, and with whom injections of mor
phine and the use of chloral had failed to pro
duce the desired repose, a friend suggested a
trial of Kau de Cologne, which she had already
used witli success in similar circumstances on
some twenty different occasions. An Immedi
ate experiment w as made, by placing a handker
chief well moistened with cologne under the
nostrils of the invalid, who, in the space of
seven minutes, sank into a profound slumler.
The same experiment Mas repeated in other
cases, with excellent results.
St'OAK Makinu. On the subject of sugar
making, the Ipswich ObterWf writes: ".Mr.
Kastes, of Heeuleigh, has made a most astound
ng discovery in sugar making, lie claimed to
be able to crystallize the whole of the juice and
leave no molasses. He tested his discovery at
Dart's mill, near Itrislianc and the result was
astonishing. He experimented on Chigaeca
rattoon juice marking 10 IScaume, ami from
l,!HK) gallons was produced l',-100 pounds of
beautiful white sugar, equal to the retincd of
Vcngarie, and not a pint of molasses! It was
finished in vacuum jians, and came out with
only a little moisture, which the centrifugal soon
removed. This is assuredly the precursor of a
revolution in sugar making, and the magnitude
ol its importance is tremendous."
FoiuK-diviNii Food in Bramub Brown
bre.nl, oatmeal and fruits are all torcv-giviug,
hut to a less extent than fats, yet sufficiently so
hr the requirements of the season, and those
penone much who have very muscular work to
00 may use more freely force-giving foods in hot
Weather than those whose uboc is sedentary
and light. From experiments which we have
well tried, over and over again, however, we are
Mtisfied that even farmers, in the hottest days
t' summer, who are obliged to work in the
barret! held can do more work, suffer less w ith
heat, and incur less risk of sunstroke by follow
ing the mles we have laid down, than by using
hhihlv carbonized diet of oils and fats. Jfr.
tfoaVwai
DURABILITY OF TIMBER
The durability of timber isfnlmost incredible.
The following are a few examples for illustra
tion, selected for the Railway trom vari
ous sources, and vouched for by scientific men.
The piles of a bridge built by Trajan, after
having Ken driven more than 1,600 vears, were
found to U- petrified four inches, the rest of the
wooa ueing m its ordinary condition.
The elm piles under the piers of London
bridge have been in use more than 700 vears,
and are not yet materially decayed.
Beneath the foundation of Savoy place, Lon
don, oak, elm, beech ami chestnut piles and
planks were found in a state of perfect preser
vation, after having Wen there for 660 years.
While taking down the old walls of Tun
bridge castle, Rent, there was found iu the
middle of a thick stone wall a timber curb,
which had been enclosed for 700 years.
Borne timber of in old bridge wo discovered
while digging for the foundations of a bouse at
Dtt3C ark, Windsor, which nnvi-jut reoarda
incline us to believe were placed there prior to
the year 1806.
The durability of tiuilter out of ground is
even greater still. The roof off the basilica of
St. Paul, at Rome, was framed m the year BIO,
and now, after more than 1,00) years, it is still
sound, and the original cypress-wood doors of
the same building, after being in use more than
(Kill years, were, when replaced by others of
brass, perfectly free from rot or decay, the Wood
retaining its original odor. The timber dome
of St. Mark, at Venice, is still good, though
more than BM years old. The roof of the Jac
obin convent, at Paris, which is of tir, was ex
ecuted more than 4o0 years ago.
The age of our country's settlement does not
enable us to refer to examples of like antiquity)
but no good reason appears to exist why timber
may not he as durable in America as in Europe,
-Many old white-pine cornices here exist, whicji,
having leen kept properly painted, have been
exposed to the storms of more than ISO years.
The wood is still sound, and the arrises are as
good as -when they were made; while freestone,
in the same neighborhood, has decayed badly in
less than .10 years.
What is an RxurxaKB? At the lost meeting
of the Knghsh Society of Kligilieeni the Presi-
.lent, Mr. Vaughn Pendred, stated In bis ad.
dress that in the highest lenae of the term an
engineer is a man who cannot only invent or de
vise but execute; in a sulwnliary sense every
man who can construct is an engineer. Booh
an admirable dcliniti savs the Mining Jour
nal, can offend in e, for it will include not
only the Tclfurds, but the Stovcnsons, and
the builders of such elegant bridges as that
w Inch recently doubled up In lermany, but also
the entire maiiufae luring population of the
world, from Sir Joseph Whitworth to the itin
erant tinker: it will account, too, for the free
dom with which the title of engineer is assumed
by men of all classes and jsisscssing various de
grees of knowledge, and should have the effect
of largely increasing the uumlicr of membere of
that useful society of which Mr. Pendred is the
able representative. Admitting tbatevery man
who can construct is an engineer, there will tut
less difficulty in accepting the President's grati
fying assurance that the whole army of engi
DUO n, civil and mechanical, has operated from
the earliest nges to the present moment in the
achievement of a great work, no less a work
than the civilization of mankind, and that he
is enunciating a great truth in declaring that
engineers have done more to raise men to the
high level which they now occupy than even
the philosopher or the statesman; that engi
neers are Me great civilizers of mankind, and
that nearly all that is good, or pleasant, or
worth having iii modern Uie -.happy engineera
results from their lalors.
Comnnra rod axd Strkl, Dry Wat, In
eases where it is desired to give a stout coating
BOppar. brass or bronze to wrought or caat
Iron goods, and a uniform thickness is not
weutia, a iu flic lent quantity of the metal is
-t to melt in a crucible. Its upjier surface re
ceive! a layer of (iaudoiti's Hus, a mixture of
cryolite and phosphoric acid, and the article,
heated to the temperature of the lth, is placed
i" it If the article is heavy, it will be well
t" heat it gradually and thoroughly, both
to avoid um-qual expansion and to obviate the
danger of the coating peeling off in conaequeii. c
at unequal contraction.
Kkttles. The old notion that a three-legged
tea-kettle boils soonest, is correct, because the
'tga conduct heat more rapidly than the plain
urface alone.
SlffaCLAB FORaUnoRR, Thfl character of the
led-rock at and near Point Bar. on Trinity
ri ver, is very different from the genera run of
river mines. In a ci n. raJ wav 'Iron nlaces ai
the lied-rock, unless they are regular channels
or crevices, pay n-ttliiii.-; the pav lirt hotoMcml
ing Mow the level of the surrounding rock, but
continuing along iu the gravel at thatlevel. At
and near Point liar, the reverse is the case, the
liest and richest pay having lccn always found
in deep depressions of the bed-rock. On Point
liar itsell some tour or live of those ileep places
have been found, filled with big bowloen and
blue L'ravd. rich in uobl. The decti nlaces are
from thirty to a hundred yards long, fifteen to
tuirty yanis in width ami t a varying dcptli.
One in the river, a short distance Mow the old
etore and garden, was twenty feet deeper than
en waier in the channel, ami lookcil like a long,
deep bole in the led-roek, as in fact it was.
Hughes k Wallaoe have found two such de.
preaeiona in their claim opposite Qardeo liar,
one mile below, both of which proepoul well;
and so far as worked have aid welt. It is the
only place along the river that we know ol,
whore anything like a "pothole" payi anything
below the level of the surrounding rock. Trini
ty Journal.
I.akk St i'KUioR Sun- ( 'anai. The troubles
of this unfortunate corjsiration do not seem to
Im entirely ended vet. The sale of the canal,
its franchises, lands, etc., was made under fore
closure proceedings on the llth of May. The
property, says the Detroit Pod, was bra in by
trustees fair alxiut $877,000 (a sum not sufficient
t pay the preferred I Hinds in full), who pro
ceeded to organize anew company, to whom it
waa transferred. All parties of record consent
ing thereto, the sale waa confirmed by Judge
Hmwn - u rat days sime. At tin- time of the
sale a representative of some of the New York
landholders was on the ground and tiled with
the master making the sale a written protest
against the proceeding, alleging that there waa
a ring, a conspiracy; that an apeal waa pend
ing, that the sale had lieen insufficiently adver
tised, and that capitalist! stood ready to Iwy
the prtqierty in due time at something like ita
value. This protaat waa ignored, and this pro
tectant came before Judge Swayne and asked
that the confirmation of the sale lie act aside.
There waa much talk about fraud, ringa, extra
ordinary haate in continuing the rejNirt of sale,
etc. Judge Swayne took the matter under ad-vtaemeut.
THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY.
We have heard but little lately of this
great enterprise to which the Dominion of Can
ada is committed, hut some interesting informa
tion as to the progress and position ol the rail
way is afforded iu a report just issued by Mr.
Bradford Fleming, the chief engineer "of the
undertaking. The surveys or examinations
made by Mr. Sandford Fleming and his asso
ciates have not all been of the same ehatacter,
Out they have varied according to circum
stances. They may be subdivided under six
heads: First, explorations; secondly, explora
tory surveys; thirdly, revised surveys; fourthly,
trial locations; fifthly, Location surveys: and
sixthly, revised bn-atious. At the commence-
ment of the eurrey, all the sources of wfonna
tion open to inquiry with regard to the passes
through the Rooky mountains were consulted;
and after careful examination, it appeared that
two paatea known as the Howie and the Yellow
Head possessed advantages which, taken in con
junction wuli the approaches to them, called
for further examination. It was evident that
the obetaolee which btervened between the
passes and the coast of llritish Columbia were
of a serious character, and that the selection of
the pass through the main Rooky mountain
range depended on the discovery of a practica
ble line oeross the whole mountain re
gion. After various examinations, the Yellow
Head iass waa preferentially selected, and it
was found that it was jMissible to reach the
coast by the course mid outlet of the rivers
Thompson and Fraser, the line terminating at
an excellent harlor on Itnrrard inlet. It was
ascertained that ortious of the route through
the Rooky mountain region would beeipenaive,
but that the engineering features w Inch govern
the cost of working a railway and transporting
goods promised to le much more favorable on
the Canadian line than on the American route.
Ten routes have been Opened lor consideration
by Mr. Sandford Fleming and his assistants.
'I hese routes terminate on the coast of the main
laud at seven distinct barbon, but they all con
verge on Yellow Head Pass. The line has been
"located" witli sufficient accuracy to admit of
the construction of an overland telegraph. Up
ward! of 1, (KM) men have been employed iu the
surveys directed by Mr. Fleming, and the routes
explored amount in the aggregate to nearly 40,
000 miles. Of th is aggregate, eleven thousand live
hundred miles were laboriously measured yard
by yard, through mountain, prairie, and foreat,
with spirit level, chain, and the usual appli
ances. Mr. Fleming is obliged to admit that,
aiinougn seerai routes uie available troiu the
Uocky mountains to the I 'aei lie coast, it e.innot
lie claimed for any one oi them that it is free
iroin constructive .litliculties.
I DKKI' Mininu Siiafix IN Kl'HOl'K. Twenty
yiars ago the deepest mining abaft in the world
reached only about L'.IKH) feet Mow the surface.
The very deeitcst, we Mievc. was a nielalliler-
: oils mine iu Hanover, which baa been carried
down to the depth of 2.900 feet The deopcet
oriendicular sliait to-day is the Adalbert shaft
, in a silver-lead mine iu Prizibram, iu Bohemia,
: which has reached a depth of :i,lS0 feet. The
attainment of that depth was made the ooce
siou of a three-days' festival, and still forth-
I noticed by the striking oil' of a large number of
coinnioniorative silver medals of the value of a
Norm each. There is no record of the begin
ning ot work on this mine, although its written
llistorv foes back to I.V'7. tJiiitn re. tie mi
elegant commemorative volume has Ih-cii writ
ten ami printed, winch is most interest in-; V
those who have a taste for either the MtoafTtiea
i or antiquities of mining industry. There are
two other localities, however, where a greater
oi no lias oecll reached i . . at the AiiaiDOn
sliatt, hut nut in a lierpcmhciilar hue. The
I are: first, the Kocksalt DOre-hole. in ar Span
iKrg, nut far from Iterbn, w Inch, a I. w y- .n-.
ago, had lcen lM.red to a depth of J.I7-'i fi-et
aeoond, the coal mine of Vivien Itemus, u
Belgium. Where the miners, by shaft ilnklmr.
together with boring, have reached a depth of
ILrM'J feet. Turning fnmi these two mines, no
shaft, in unbroken, iHrjcmlicnlar line, has oh
yei exceeoeti uie ilepth ol S.'JMMeet
poisons ix WHITE RUBBER.
We have lately alluded to the dangerous
qualities iu thin substance. The subject is
worth further description and we quota from
the Manntactuitr ud HniLUr iu bdlows; Hub.
bet is at present largely adulterated so as to
make it cheaper, The overshoes and Umta
made of this material are adulterated with
tiuely-ground burned potter's clay, of which it
can stand as much as Im per cent, without los
ing its fitness for the purpose. The adultera
tion is harmless, only the material is not so
strong, and the shoes or Units, instead of last
ing several seasons, as the old-fashioned little
or non-adulterated material, scarcely but olio
season, as they tear very easily and holes soon
wear iu them. While the pure rubber is
stronger than the beat leather, the adulterated
robber is ION strong than the Wont leather.
ltiibbcr hose and sheet rubber am osiodle
adulterated with aoapatone. This gives a
lighter color to tlie material, while the burnt
clay adulteration leaves it dark-colored, which
is preferred for shoes. Hut some adulterations
are hurtful, being poisonous in their nature.
Such is the adulteration with .ine-white,
w hich makes the rubber very light-colored, and
is used in the rnhltcr for nursing-1 ottlos and
,........ l.ijn. L1M aiNWW BUW pOlSOlllllg
n tile system are searcelv less alamtttia than
lead poisoning. Sometime ago a little child in
1 1 uiwjuvMiM oieu noiii uuni ing a paper collar,
which, like many paper collars, was prepared
with inc-while; and cases arc now on record
where children have Weenie sick from keeping
rubber toys in their mouths. So many eases ilf
rom the w hile nipples ot Iiuisiiil'-
Pliis.Kliss on Till BnOOKLTR BftlDOft The
work of laying two of the four great eahles of
the Brooklyn bridge is now in progress. The
steel billets out of which the wire of these cables
U manufactured, says the Amtrkan llannflte-
hirer, are from the Works of Messrs. Aii.b'i-on
. raaaavant, of ntteburg, ami. as delivered,
are drawn to a fourth inch in thickliess. The
work of preparing the wire from these billets is
done at a man u factory 141 Brooklyn, Befon
lK'ing galvani.etl this win- measures llu-HKf)
ol an inch iu diameter. IMorc lieiiig m'tit to
the bridge it is galvanized ami receives two
coats (if oil, increasing the diameter to from
hM-HMH) to 17:1-1000, weighing in coils of from
MM to 1,'JIIO feet, not less than fill toumk On
the anchorage the wire receives another coat of
oil, and is wound on to drums in lengths of
about 10 miles, the wires being spin ed, and
from them is paid out and brought to the New
York anchorage by means of the camera. The
cables, of which there will be four, when com
plete will consist of HI brands of MO win s
each. It is thought that one strand for each
cable can lie completed in one month, at which
rate it will take nineteen mouths to finish the
cables. The cables will measure ahmil .M
inches in diameter, and weigh some MM ton's
each,
Thr Watkh Rot tkh num Oanoaoo to Kiw
York. Krie canal-men have reduowl their
eharge four cei,u jer bushel on corn fnun
Bmfwo to New York I the lake veaaela are car
rying from Chicago to Ituffalo for two cvtitr,
and, adding the elevator charges at the latter
place and the insurance, the total unit of send
ing a bushel of corn from Chicago to New York
is now alciut seven and a half eenta, the rail rate
lieing about 10 eenta iwr bushel, last year
the canal rate alone waa nine eenta oti corn,
which waa a large reduction from former charge.
Tiiant uii TUB I'YHKNKfcX A tunnel through
the Pyrenees will complete the railroad commu
nication between France and Spain by January
1st, 1878. It will aave twelve noun of dili
gence ruling.
bottles have already occurred, that the use of
zinc iu them has been mostly abandoned,
Liraav ruooor nippies, or nous, w hen laid ill
vineflar. become covered with an Inamataainn
of inc acetate, luoneeaae, int.7:t gram of a
doll 0.45 gram of zinc oxid was found, (over 60
percent.) in subjecting such rubber objects
to a red neat, li'-' per cent, of ashes remained,
while the ashes were yellow while hot and ho
came white on cooling, which is the character
tatifl behavior of zinc oxide, called zine w hite.
In another case, in a doll warranted harmless,
58 per cent of aahee waa obtained, mostly all
lino oxide.
Several chemical journals an' now oalllna at
tention to these tacts, and it is to be hoped that
it will effeot an amelioration in the consciences
of the manufacturers.
OroOKRD RalLWAYa, We read Of something
abroad which has been hinted at iu our own
country. The crooked nature of the railway
fromGalati westward parallel with the Danube
is a peculiarity w hich there is nothing in tho
surface of the laud to account for. A corre
spondent nt' .. Ttmu explains that in follow
ing out on the map the capricious zigzags which
the principal Roumanian railway describes, a
circumstance which becomes more complicated
in the eyes of the traveler by reason of a DUm
ber of curvee of a utility more than queetion-
able, one asks himscli the reason of this extra
ordinary antipathy (or straight lines, which baa
placed under the caution of the Turks an im
portant point iu the line of communication no
valuable, since it would have been both more
direct and safer to have one line run ten good
leagues distance in the interior. Here is the
singular explanation they give, such aa it is.
Tim Roumanian railway waa undertaken by
Strouslierg. It was a memorable impudence,
to sMak with prudence. One of tho stipula
tions of the Contract was that there should lie n
Certain subvention ar mile, and this was au
oorded befon the line was laid out. The con
tractor accordingly lengthened his line with
curves to the utmost Jiossible extent.
(J it an i ik Railways, a French engineer has
proposed to establish tramways with granite
tracks in lieu of rails, iu riuislerre. He la ol
opinion that this system is far preferable to the
ordinary railroads, There already exists a vast
network of what are in truth tramways with
granite rails, Worked by horse traction, in north
ern Italy. Iu tbestreetsof llw principal towns,
and sometimes on the roads, tracks of granite
are laid in the highway The surtae " these
tracks iH-mg flat and perfectly smooth, tho
wheels of the vehicles glidV over them with tho
least poeaible friction. The conductor of each
vclm fe takes care so to guide it that the wheels
always remain on the granite. The author of
the project maintains that then; is nothing to
prevent the granite lines from boUU used by
carriages driven by steam power, in like man
ner aa though drawn by horses. At the same
time it is not promised to d .,, tho train ava.
tem on grand. traeks; each carriage will 1st pro-
vided with ite own eteam power, will move by
iteelf, ami lie guided by means of ., mechanism
aneeuuly devised for the purpose, 'alt Mali
Oairttr.
I. till' Ml W i t tor uiv Bhim EIm im m..
following is Mid to be ft good formula for tho
i""!"-" ' ' "- oona rauuvr in i pint
of oil of torpentine by the aid ol a water bath,
preventing lossi disaolve 15 one, o( purelrees
wax, 8 on, of burgundy pitch, and I rat "f
gumohlNiuum iu -I pints of oil of tStrpsntUWI
llirll mli'iiiM. nl flu. !...( In 1.U..L .. ;.v.
pmt t oil of terpentine u a amooth mixture,
-y " """" "on now pint
of oops varnmh and afterwards pints of limn
u itj r iii unniil it Ii.b .,f J mm -t m t. .
" ". """ MUM, siirrmg
after each aildition, and continuing the stirring
UIU is aiioi .i lir some time af
terwards. The miitiire must always Iki well
stirred up befon any is taken out for 0SS,
Thr Irtrrior Bra is Auawta s i...
recently publi.hc-1 rejs.rt by Itomlaire on Ida
RUaUaOn to the ( Imtts. baSaMM Hi. Li i kL.
liulf of I n, Srth Africa, aprOBM of the
i oiaaing an Ulterior a.a, the Kngiuh
Mrrfan,- b arns that some '2.VIMMI (Nil t,. .'Mi .
(BW.OUI) cubic metera of aand would have to lie
displaced dirw-tlv. Tlie j.roUble eipeiiae u
put at i'l.OIKt.WK) to .'W.dOO.fKMl fram. The
water of ttie .Med.terraiieaii would Ihi dejs mb d
oti to -il. . t the d. . p. mi,- of the trench, to tho
eitentof I IU,UUQ,UUU cubic metera.