Page 491

Tke Wisconsiu Lumberman.
by years of prosperity; and then having be-
gun in this career of self-reliance we Shl
Shall not require outside assistance.
Indeed, the happy conception of the three-
feet gauge has placed it in the power of every
town to build and own its own road, and thus
be relieved from continued contributions to
outside parties, which becomes such a devas-
tating drain upon any community.
In conclusion we ask the confidence of the
people in this enterprise, and trust that our
appeal for funds to iron and equip the forty
or ffty miles already graded, will meet with
such a cheerful and ready response that the
work can at once be entered upon, and the
first divison completed the present season
while labor and material can be obtained at
such a low figure.
It will not be denied that Chicago makes a
successful bid for a large amount of Wiscon-
sin trade through her Northwestern and other
roads, and we greatly mistake the temper of
the business men of Milwaukee if they do not
arcept this offer and opportunity to makb re-
prisals from Illinois and Iowa; for it must
not be forgotten that the first twelve or fif-
teen miles of this road is the beginning of the
Milwaukee and St. Louis Air Line. which
will run southwest through the whole state of
Illinois.
* 5::
Black Stains for Wood.
A German trade circular describes two
kinds of black stains for wood: (1) The
ordinary black stains for different kinds of
wood. (2) The black ebony stain for cer-
tain woods whieh approach nearest to eb-
ony in hardness and weight. The ordina-
ry black-wood stain is obtained by boiling
together blue Brazil wood, powdered gall
apples, and alum, in rain or river water,
until it becomes black. The liquid is then
filtered through a fine organzine, and  the
ojects painted with a new brush before the
decoction has cooled, and this repeated un-
til the wood appears of a fine black color:
It is then coated with the following liquid.
a mixture of iron filings, vitriol, and vine-
gar is heated (without boiling), and left a
few days to settle. If the wood is black
enough, yet for the sake of durability, it
must be coated with a solution of alum and
nitric acid, mixed with a little verdigris,
then a decoction of gall apples and logwood
dyes are used to give it a deep black. A
decoction may be made of brown Brazil
wood with alum in rain water, without
gall apples; the wood is left standing in it
for some days in a moderately warm place,
and to it merely iron filings in strong vine-
gar is added, and both are boiled with the
wood over a gentle fire. For this purpose
soft pear-wood is chosen, which is prefer-
* able to all others for black staining. For
I the fine black ebony stain, apple, pear, and
hazel wood are recommended in prefer-
erence for this; especially when these
kinds of wood have no projecting veins
they may be successfully coated with black
stain, and are the most comnlete immita-
tion of the natural ebony. For this com-
pound 14 oz. of gall apples, 3X oz. of
rasped logwood, 1Y oz. of vitriol. and 13Y
oz. of distilled verdigris are boiled together
with water in   awell-glazed pot,  the
decoction   filtered  while   it   is
warm,     and   the    wood    coated
with rpeated hot layc-s of it. For a sec-
ond coating a mixture of 3A oz. of pure
iron fillings dissolved in three-quarters of
a litre of strong wine vinegar, is warmed,
and when cool the wood already blackened
* is coated two or three times with it, allow-
ing each coat to dry between. For arti-
cles which are to be thoroughly saturated,
a mixture of 1YI oz. of sal-ammoniac, with
a sufficient quantity of steel filings, is to be
placed in a suitable vessel, strong vinegar
* poured upon it, and left for fourteen days
inn gently heated oven. A strong lye is
is now put in a good pot, to which is added
coarsely braised gall apples and blue Bra-
zil shavings and exposed for the same
time as the former to the gentle heat of
an oven, which will then yield a good liquid.
the pear-wood articles are now laid in the
first named stain, boiled for a tew hours,
and left  in for  three  days longer;
they are then placed in a second stain, and
treated as in the first. If the articles are
not then thoroughly saturated, they
may be once more placed in the
first bath, and then in the second.
Deeision of the MIkhigan Supreme Court
Relative to Log Running.
The case of Speechley & Lee vs. Thun-
der Bay Boom Company, taken from Al-
pena circuit, was decided in the supreme
court against the Boom Company and af-
firming the decision in the lower court.
The principal question involved was the
right of a boom company to flood a stream
in order to enable it run a large quantity
of logs of certain rapids in the Thunder
Bay river, interfearing with the property
of Speechley and Lee below. The court
held that the Boom Company had no such
rights-that the question of such use be-
ing a reasonable one was a question of
law for the court and not one of fact for
the jury
491