Everyday Science.-To Mend India-Rubber Shoes and Boots.-The following can be relied on: Procure a small tin box of prepared rubber in a semi-liquid condition, which can be purchased for a few cents at almost any store where Indiarubber goods are kept for sale. The boot must be washed clean and dried. Then the surface around the rent is to be roughened a little with the point of a knife, after which the semi-liquid rubber is spread on with a spoon as thickly as it could be without flowing away. Then a neat patch is prepared and covered with one or two coats of rubber. When the prepared rubber is almost dry, the patch is applied, and held on firmly for a few minutes.

To Stick Leather, Paper, or Wood to Metal.-To a gill of glue dissolved in water add a tablespoonful of glycerin.

For Slight Burns.-Apply cotton batting soaked with a liniment made of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water. Be careful not to break the blisters, should any form.

Tests for Indigo.-The finest quality of indigo has the least specific gravity, and floats upon water. It may also be tested by its not readily leaving a mark on drawing it across a piece of paper, and also by the clear blue which it imparts to water when dissolved.

To Prevent the Skin Discoloring after a Bruise.-Take a little dry starch or arrowroot, moisten it with cold water, and place it on the injured part. This done immediately prevents the action of the air upon the skin. Invaluable for black cyes.

Excellent Stove Blacking.-Black lead well mixed with white of egg is a good stove blacking. Lay on with a paint brush, and when dry polish with a hard brush.

To Prevent Flat Irons from Rusting.-Melt one-quarter ounce of camphor and one-half pound fresh hog's lard over a slow fire, take off the scum, and mix as much black lead with the composition as will bring it to the color of iron. Spread this over the articles for which it is intended. Let it lie for twenty-four hours, and then rub it well with a dry linen cloth. Or smear the irons over with melted suet, and dust thereon some pounded unslaked lime from a muslin bag. Place the irons in a dry place when not in use, and cover them with baize.

For Finding the Weight of Horses or Steers.-Make a weighing-stall about three feet wide with a level floor. In the latter make a recess for the platform of the scales so that the platform will be flush with the planking. Now lead your horse or steer into the stall, so that the forefect of the animal rest on the platform and note the weight. Start him ahead until his hind feet are on the platform; note the weight again. Add the two weights thus taken, and the sum will be the total weight of the animal.

Streaked Butter.—The cause of streaked butter is the imperfect working of the butter after it is salted. Salt in butter sets the color, or deepens and brightens it; so that if the salt is worked into the butter and not so fully worked as to salt every part, then the fresh butter retains the color it had

when it came from the churn, and the salt butter grows so much darker that it is decidedly streaked. The remedy is to work the streaked butter more thoroughly.

To Utilize Broken Glass Apparatus by Cutting into Forms.-Make a paste of one-eighth ounce gum tragacanth with water, and also one-quarter ounce powdered gum ber zoin with alcohol. Mix the two, and add powdered beech wood charcoal, forming thick dough, which mould into little sticks about four inches in length and three-eighth of an inch thick. The glass to be cut is first scratched deeply with a diamond, and then one of the sticks, previously ig nited, is held against the crack. The glass will divide neatly as the end of the stick, which becomes a pointed glowing coal, is drawn over the diamond scratch.

Recent Inventions.-Among recent inventions noticed in the Scientific American, we find the following, in which some of our readers may be interested:

Improved Bed Bottom, invented by Elias Stillwell, Ricksville, Missouri.—The object of this invention is to provide 2 cheap, comfortable, and elastic bed bottom, without the use of slats or springs as ordinarily employed; and it consists in two inside detachable rails, over which a stretcher of canvas is placed. The rails are kept apart by notched bars, have arms which rest upon a subjacent support, and, when pressed down from the weight of the occupant, tighten the canvas. In combination with the rails are employed one or more bolts on each side, which pass through the bedstead rails, and also the detachable rails, to prevent the accidental displacement of the latter.

Improved Remedy for Rheumatism, invented by Aug. Stverin, New York City.-The proposed remedy is a composi tion of iodide of potassium, solid extract of aconite, wine of colchicum, morphine, and compound syrup of sarsaparilla.

Improved Key for Lock, invented by Warren H. Guthrie Hudson City, New Jersey.-A common device of burglars for entering locked doors is to seize the key from the ourse with a fine pair of nippers, turn it, and so draw lack toe latch. The present invention prevents this by means of a swinging staple-shaped guard hung to the key and surrounding the wards, so that, when the key is in the lock, each of the keyholes will be filled by a wedge-shaped plate, which prevents the introduction of nippers or the planting of a

drill.

Improved Cigarette Mouth Piece, invented by Dudrică Marquis, New York City.-This invention consists of a cigarette with tapering mouth piece, that is wound with an inner and outer spiral, decreasing in width, to which a wrap per of tobacco paper is connected in spiral shape, to be fille and closed at the end.

A Boiling Lake.-The discovery of a boiling lake in the island of Dominica has excited much scientific interest, and investigations of the phenomena are to be made by geolo

gists. It appears that a company exploring the steep and forest-covered mountains behind the town of Rosseau came upon the boiling lake, about twenty-five hundred feet above the sea level, and two miles in circumference. On the wind clearing away for a moment, the clouds of sulphurous steam with which the lake was covered, a mound of water was seen ten feet higher than the general level of the surface, caused by ebullition. The margin of the lake consists of beds of sulphur, and its overflow found exit by a waterfall of great height.

United States Patents in 1875.-The Scientific American summarizes the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents as follows:

Number of Patents issued by the United States Patent Office

to Residents of the aifferent States, Territories, and Foreign Countries, from January 1, 1875, to December 31, 1875. The proportion of patents to population is shown in

last column:

States, etc.

District of Columbia

Connecticut

No. of Patents. One to every

other foreign countries

91 128

3,771

1,163

2,689

Leaving the actual number expired. Analysis. An analysis of the table shows interesting facts. The geographical distribution of inventors, to whom patents were granted in 1875, appears by it to be as follows:

To the six New England States there were issued 3,188 patents, being one to every 1,094 people.

To the seven Middle States (including Delaware, Maryland, and West Virginia), 7,905, one to every 1,623 people. To the nine Western States (including Missouri), 3,076, one to every 3,360 people.

To the twelve Southern States, 814, one to every 13,279 people.

To the three Pacific States, 437, one to every 1,699 people. To nine Territories, 59, one to every 12,203 people. And to the District of Columbia, 214, one to every 615 of population, being the highest ratio in the Union,

Gains and Losses.-All the States and Territories have held their own, or made gains over 1874 in the number of their patents, save the following, which show losses: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oregon, Vermont (for a wonder), and Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming Territories.

New Hampshire and Nevada remained stationary, the former having 127, the latter 16 patents, the same as in 1874. The principal increase was made in the following States: New York, 986; Pennsylvania, 390; Massachusetts, 340; Illinois, 164; California, 98, and the District of Columbia, 69.

1,323

Artificial Teeth on Natural Stumps.-Mr. Moon has recently stated, in a communication to the English Odontological Society, that the stump of a tooth may be preserved as the basis of an artificial tooth, and rendered painless, by leaving the root canal empty and drilling a hole into it just below the edge of the gum. This hole becomes a permanent vent, and thus saves the stump from disturbing influences, which, if deprived of means of escape, would ultimately destroy it by a painful process.

Fossil Frogs.-Professor Newberry, of the Ohio geological survey, has made additional collections in the coalmeasures of new fossils. The vertebrate remains of land animals of carboniferious age have as yet only been found in Ohio, within the limits of the United States. These include thirty-three species of Batrachians, but no reptiles or higher vertebrata. One of the recent novelties is a species of the genus Ceraterpeton, the first time a European genus has been detected in America. It was as large as a rat, and had a pair of stout horns on the back of its head, in the position and having much the form of those of an ox. The skull is sculptured by rows of small pits, separated by fine radiating ridges.

Sixty-Foot Rails.-The Edgar Thompson Steel Works have filled an order for 60 foot rails. Several advantages are claimed for rails of this length. They cost no more per pound than 30 foot rails; and as two crop ends are saved, the cost of production is considerably lessened-no way of using crop ends economically having yet been devised. The cost of laving is lessened; fewer fish plates, etc., are required; and as the hammering caused by the rolling stock in passing from rail to rail is lessened by one half, the wear and tear of rails and rolling stock must be greatly diminished. On bridges, also, the strain will be greatly reduced. The practical results of the use of these rails will be awaited with considerable interest.-Chicago Railroad Review.

How to Grow Fat.-It is said that a pint of milk, taken every night just before retiring to rest will soon make the thinnest figure plump. Here is a simple and pleasant means by which thin, scraggy women may acquire plump, rounded figures.

Quail on Toast.-We dare say that there are a great many people who, if asked whether they could or would partake of so toothsome a dish as a broiled quail on toast once a day for a month, would stare at the questioner in astonishment, and express an earnest desire to be afforded the opportunity. And yet we can positively venture the assertion that not one person out of a thousand would continue the diet for a fortnight. This is not because of the quantity of meat, because any one's ordinary dinner aggregates an immensely larger amount, nor is it due to a surfeit of one particular kind of food, for roast beef might be eaten every day for a year with relish. The difficulty lies in the flavor of the meat. Delicious as it is as an occasional delicacy, if it be eaten daily for ten days or thereabouts, it becomes excessively nauseating.

An individual named O'Donnell, who lives in Madis. 7, Indiana, has brought himself into notice, by accom¡ listing the hitherto unparalled feat (on a wager) of eating thirty quails in as many consecutive days, and this without any inconvenience or disgust. The case has attracted some attention from the medical fraternity, and sundry individuals are making Mr. O'Donnell's marvelous stomach the subject of extensive bets.

Canal Steaming.-The use of steam on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal is destined to increase the transportation facilities of that enterprise, and eventually make a larger quantity of Cumberland coal available. The Ludlow Pittin recently made a round trip between Cumberland and Georgetown, including lockage, in four days and nineteen hours, said to have been the fastest time ever made on the canal. The owner of the Ludlow Patton claims that the simple and ingenious arrangement for submerging her propellor has corducted largely to her success. She has been running the entire season just closing, has consumed for fuel 41⁄2 tons of coal per trip, and the repairs to her motive power have thes far cost but 90 cents.

Lifting Effect of Frost on Trees.-Dr. Lapham, State Botanist and State Geologist of Wisconsin, says that frest exerts a lifting power on full grown trees, so as to cause the impression on some that the tree begins to grow again after once attaining its full growth. When the land freezes expansion ensues, drawing the tree up with it, leaving of course a cavity whence the root was drawn. When the first frost comes, the moisture, carrying earthy matter, enters the cavity, and thus the root is prevented from returning to its original position. Dr. Lapham suggests that one of the chief offices of the tap roots may be to guard the tree as much as possible against this frost-lifting.

Explosion of Chromic Acid with Glycerin.-Explo sive prescriptions are sometimes sent to innocent pharmacists Ly careless or ignorant physicians. The latest case of this kind is related by Austrian journals. The following mixture was ordered for external use: 7.5 grains chromic acid 2. 60 grains glycerin. The chromic acid was mixed with water in a flask and the glycerin mixed with it by shaking Suddenly the contents of the flask exploded with a lead report, flying all about the shop, while the vessel remaine.! unhurt in the hand of the astonished apothecary, and was covered with a black mass. This case deserves the mor notice because the quantity was so small and the detonation so extremely violent.

Another Explosion of Factory Dust.-A singular catastrophe took place at Champion Mills, Chicago, Ill., on December 31, 1875. One of the millers was pouring some fine middlings down a chute, when the fine dust ignited on contact with the flame of a lamp which he held in his hand A bud explosion followed, and his hands and face were terribly burnt. The building at once took fire, and property to the amount of about $4,000 was destroyed,

MANY very plain buildings in our country were made famous by their association with important events that occurred during our old War for Inde-❘ pendence. Some of these simple farm-houses, in which dwelt people without a particle of ambition for distinction in the annals of their country, have passed away forever, yet their records remain, and their memory will be preserved for long generations. Others still stand with almost their original aspects, and are held sacred by the American citizens because of the deeds of patriotism, or the personal sacrifice of patriots, with which they are associated. Others, again, are cherished merely because they were witnesses of events of that period in our national history in which our republic was born. Some of these have unpleasant memories, like those which cluster around the Robinson House, on the Hudson, the theatre of the most exciting scene in the drama of Arnold's treason. Among the buildings yet remaining, almost unchanged in external features since that struggle, and that were made notable, is the Billopp House, on Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy, in New Jersey, so called because it was the property of Colonel Billopp, an adherent of the British crown, at the time the events we are about to consider, occurred there. It is a plain, substantial building of stone, and standing upon the brow of a gentle declivity that slopes to the waters of a strait known as the Kills, that flow backward and forward between it and the pleasant town of Perth Amboy, on the main, with the rise and fall of the tides. Around it spreads out a spacious lawn that extends down to the water, and huge willows and clumps of pines, almost conceal it from the view of passengers on the strait. Our picture is made from a photograph kindly furnished by William A. Whitehead, Esq., a careful historian, and Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society, who procured it in the summer of 1875. The building seems to have been scarcely changed in aspect, since I visited and made a pencil-sketch of it, twenty-six years ago. Only the piazza in front appears to be modern. The mansion and the surrounding grounds belong, I believe, to the estate of the late William H. Aspinwall, of New York. Two head stones have been removed from their places in the old family burial-ground, and now stand leaning against a fence near the house.

The exact time when this house was built is not known. It is probably at least one hundred and fifty years old. By whom it was built is also an unsolved question. And in regard to the Billopp family there is such an indefinable mixture of his tory and tradition, that it is difficult to determine what is truth. One story informs us that Captain Christopher Billopp, of the British navy, who commanded the war-ship Bently, was stationed at New York soon after the final surrender of New Netherland to the English. At about that time a question arose as to which province, New York or New Jersey, Staten Island belonged. A decision had been made that all islands in and adjacent to New York bay, around which a ship could sail in twenty-four hours, should belong to the province of New York. It was believed that the water in the Kills was too shallow for a ship to sail through the strait. It had not then been attempted, and there was a basis for a dispute concerning the pos session of Staten Island. There was a mighty war of words concerning the possibility of such a pas sage, one party declaring that a ship could sail through the Kills, and the other party as vehemently declaring that a ship could not. Captain Billopp settled the controversy in favor of New York by sailing through the Kills and circumnavi gating Staten Island in twenty-four hours with his ship. He was rewarded for this eminent service by a manorial grant of several hundred acres of land on the southern side of the Island, and to this manor was given the name of his good ship Bently, which had won the prize. It was known, it is said, as the Manor of Bentley. In 1683 Staten Island was constituted Richmond County

Another narrative informs us that Captain Billopp was so rewarded because of his gallant services in a naval action under the command of the Duke of York, the proprieter of the province of New York. This is probably nearer the truth than the former story; but nothing is said about a manor. We learn from the records, that so early as the administration of Governor Dongan (1683 to 1688) there were two manors on Staten Island, one on the southern part known as "Billopp Manor," and the other on the northern part (which belonged to Dongan), and was known as "Cassiltoun Manor." Mr. Whitehead, in his "Contributions to the Early History of Perth Amboy," tells us, that Thomas