HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



87 



supplied with air, and a careless or unskilful work- 

 man occasionally received the flame fully in his face ; 

 beard, whiskers, eyebrows, and eyelashes were singed, 

 and the skin would have been sorely blistered, but 

 for the simple remedy they had somehow learned to 

 apply. This was to rush to a tank of crude oil and 

 wash their faces with it as freely as though washing 

 with water. I saw two cases in which this was 

 neglected, and the men suffered much pain, and some 

 disfigurement, but in all cases where the remedy was 

 promptly applied but little inconvenience followed, 

 and no scars were left. Dr. R. Piatt, the medical 

 practitioner of the district (Leeswood and Pont Blyddu, 

 Flintshire), observed that during a severe epidemic of 

 typhus fever, the men engaged in the oil works 

 escaped, their families also. The crude paraffin oil 

 they carried home on their clothing disinfected their 

 Cottages completely. The colliers and agricultural 

 labourers of the district, whose homes and modes of 

 life were similar to those of the oil-workers, suffered 

 severely. 



Our surgeons are now using vaseline very largely 

 for dressing burns, &c. In doing so they are merely 

 extending the application of the workmen's discovery ; 

 vaseline being the hydrocarbon which is chiefly 

 concerned in giving to the crude petroleum, or the 

 crude distillate of the cannel or shale its characteristic 

 viscosity. 



• 



Micro-Organisms in Air. — Dr. Percy Frankland 

 and Mr. T. G. Hart made during last year an 

 instructive series of experiments on the micro- 

 organisms in the air, using Hesse's apparatus, and 

 a standard quantity of 10 litres of air. The results, 

 obtained on the roof of the Science Schools of South 

 Kensington, were as follows — 



In January an average of 4 micro-organisms for 10 litres of air. 



„ March „ „ 26 



.. May „ „ 31 



„ June „ „ 54 



„ July „ „ 63 



„ August „ „ 105 ,, 



„ September „ 43 „ „ 



„ October „ „ 35 „ t) 



The increased numbers found in crowded rooms 

 is very remarkable, and suggestive of the advantages 

 of fresh air. In the Library of the Royal Society, 

 during the evening conversazione of June last, there 

 were found in 10 litres of air at 9.20 P.M. 326 micro- 

 organisms ; at 10.5 p.m. 432, and at 10.15 A - M - of 

 the following day, 130. 



Norwegian and Japanese Cod Fisheries. — 

 "Nature" tells us that an official of the Japanese 

 Ministry of Commerce has been despatched to 

 Norway to study the cod-fish industry as there 

 practised. This may appear rather puzzling to 

 many readers, to whom such an industry is regarded 

 as simply a matter of catching the fish and salting 

 them. A great deal more than this is done with 

 codfish in Norway, where some 40 or 50 millions of 



fish are caught annually for exportation, besides those 

 consumed at home. Drying is a primary preservative 

 process, and there are two methods adopted ; one 

 consisting of tying the split fish together by their 

 tails, then hanging them across poles, young pine or 

 fir-trees arranged horizontally at the height of about 

 five feet from the ground. These drying grounds, 

 when extensive and fully covered, are curious features 

 of the landscape. The fish thus prepared are the 

 "stok-fisk" i.e. stick-fish. Others are dried by 

 spreading them out on the rocks. These are the 

 " klip-fisk." Then there are two branches of the 

 liver industry. First the extraction of the common 

 " fish-oil " so largely used by leather dressers. This 

 is obtained by boiling down cod livers whether fresh 

 or otherwise — mostly otherwise — in huge cauldrons, 

 the odour from which constitutes one of the sensa- 

 tions of a midsummer tour in the Lofoddens. The 

 second industry is the preparation of " medicine oil," 

 known to us as cod-liver oil. This is prepared by 

 expressing selected fresh livers, either cold or with 

 little heat, and treating the product more carefully. 

 Besides these there is a more modem jis/cguafio manu- 

 facture. Cods' heads, and in some places the stomach 

 and intestines also, are dried, ground to powder, 

 and sold under the above name. As there are large 

 supplies of cod in the water of Northern Japan, the 

 Japanese Government has wisely resolved to obtain 

 the full benefit of the matured experience of the 

 enterprising Norsemen. 



A Simple Machine. — Babbage cites as the 

 simplest example of a machine or labour-saving 

 appliance, the invention of a girl who was employed 

 in sorting needles, i.e. placing the heads all in the 

 same direction, preparatory to putting them up into 

 packets for sale. They had previously been picked 

 out one by one and pushed to the right or left 

 according to the position of heads and points. The 

 machine was simply a glove finger with a thick piece 

 of leather attached to the part corresponding to the 

 bulb of the forefinger of the right hand. A row of 

 needles was laid on a flat board and pressed down 

 with the left hand, and when this leather thimble 

 was pressed against their ends, all those having 

 their points to the right penetrated the leather 

 sufficiently to be drawn away to the right, leaving all 

 those with their points to the left in their original 

 place, and thus the labour of sorting was greatly 

 abridged by this simple invention. 



A similar invention is now in use for counting lead 

 pencils. Strips of wood with 144 grooves are laid on 

 the work-bench. The workman takes up a handful 

 of pencils and rubs them along the board once and 

 back, filling all the grooves, and thus counting one 

 gross. This is almost as simple as the needle-girl's 

 invention. I have not yet learned how much of the 

 money value of the labour saved has been awarded 

 respectively to the two inventors. 



