] 11 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERT. 



of the wood. In England some progress lias been made towards the intro- 

 duction of this system in lieu of the coarse imitative efforts of the painter 

 and grainer. London furniture dealers manufacture bedroom furniture in 

 yellow pine, French polished, for which they find a ready sale, the prefer- 

 ence it receives being due to its beauty only, and not its cheapness; for the 

 necessity of using in it only the choicest timber, free from knots and blem- 

 ishes of all kinds, makes the price nearly as high as that of mahogany. 







RECOVERING WOOL FROM WORN FABRICS. 



A patent has been taken out in England, by R. Bell, for recovering wool 

 from old worn-out clothes, composed of cotton and wool, such as delaines. 

 The patentee takes muriate of manganese, such as is ordinarily obtained as 

 a residuum in the manufacture of bleaching-powder; the rags to be treated 

 are then steeped in a solution of this, which entirely decomposes the vegeta- 

 ble or cotton portions, and leaves the woollen fibres uninjured. The liquor 

 is then strained through a sieve that retains the wool, which is afterwards 

 washed, dried, and may be used for shoddy or other purposes in making 

 new goods out of old materials, just as new paper is made out of old rags. 



