What the Ingredients Are of Soapine and Pearline.--They consist of
partly effloresced sal soda mixed with half its weight of soda ash.
Some makers add a little yellow soap, coarsely powdered, to disguise
the appearance, and others a little carbonate of ammonium or borax.
How Many Thousand Feet of Natural Gas are Equal in Heat-Creating Power
to One Ton Anthracite Coal.--About 40,000 cubic feet.
SUSTAINING POWER OF ICE.
The sustaining power of ice at various degrees of thickness is given
in the following paragraphs:
At a thickness of two inches, will support a man.
At a thickness of four inches, will support man on horseback.
At a thickness of six inches, will support teams with moderate loads.
At a thickness of eight inches, will support heavy loads.
At a thickness of ten inches, will support 1,000 pounds to the square
foot.
THE EXPANSIVE POWER OF WATER.
It is a well known, but not less remarkable fact, that if the tip of
an exceedingly small tube be dipped into water, the water will rise
spontaneously in the tube throughout its whole length. This may be
shown in a variety of ways; for instance, when a piece of sponge,
or sugar, or cotton is just allowed to touch water, these substances
being all composed of numberless little tubes, draw up the water,
and the whole of the piece becomes wet. It is said to _suck up_ or
_imbibe_ the moisture. We see the same wonderful action going on in
nature in the rising of the sap through the small tubes or pores of
the wood, whereby the leaves and upper portions of the plant derive
nourishment from the ground.
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