514 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



small, by hot pincers or tongs while heating. The tool 

 should first be heated to a white heat, and then pressed into 

 a stick of sealing-wax, left there for a second, removed, and 

 inserted into the wax in another place. This operation should 

 be repeated until the instrument is too cool to enter the wax. 



USE OF CARBOLIC ACID IN THE TRANSPORTATION OF HIDES 



AND BONES. 



Immersing hides twenty-four hours in a two per cent, so- 

 lution of carbolic acid, and then simply drying them, has been 

 recently substituted for the tedious and expensive process of 

 salting them for transportation from South America and Aus- 

 tralia, and with most satisfactory results. Bones have been 

 similarly treated for transportation. 13 C^Feb. 15,1874, 271. 



NEW METHOD OF TREATING HAIR, FUR, ETC. 



Reference has already been made to a method of utilizing 

 feathers of barn-yard poultry, wild fowls, etc., in the prepa- 

 ration of a loose fibre to be worked up into a felt cloth, blan- 

 kets, etc. The following describes a somewhat cognate in- 

 dustry having reference to a new mode of treating fur. This 

 forms the subject of a communication by Mr. Joseph Tussaud, 

 who is at present one of the proprietors of the celebrated 

 wax-work establishment in Baker Street, London, founded by 

 Madame Tussaud. The attention of Mr. Tussaud was first 

 called to the subject by his desire to transfer the hairs of 

 fur-bearing or other animals to wax figures without includ- 

 ing the skin in which they were inserted. After numerous 

 experiments he succeeded in accomplishing this, and in de- 

 veloping, as already remarked, a new industry. 



The great object which Mr. Tussaud aimed to secure was 

 the removal of hair or fur from the skin, and then attaching 

 this to an artificial skin, obtaining thus a more perfect degree 

 of preservation for any purpose whatever, while retaining the 

 hairs in their original and natural relationship. For this 

 purpose the piece of fur to be treated may be soaked in lime- 

 water or other suitable liquid, as practiced by tanners, for the 

 purpose of loosening the adhesion of the hairs. It is then to 

 be washed in water, to free it from the superabundant lime 

 or other substance, and hung up for a time to dry off the ex- 

 cess of moisture. It is next laid on a board, with the hair 



