The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-10-05
INDUSTRIAL, STATISTICAL
AND TECHNICAL.

ONE of the lectures prepared for this
season by Ralph E. Hoyt, of the Chi
cago Press, is entitled: "Civilization
and Scalps, or how to settle the Indian
question"
THE French minister of public
works has given orders for the con-
struction of the great refraeting tele-
scope, seventeen meters long (tifty-
three feet, to cost 21o, 900 francs. Two
years will be required for the work.
AN astronomer, while observing the
sun, noticed that birds frequently
passed the disc or near it. They were
several miles high, and entirely invisi-
BILE to the naked eye. 1t is suggested
that the use of the telescope may de-
velop new facts in the migration of
birds.
THE cracking of glue, which fire.
quently occurs when glued objects be-
come very dry or are subjected to the
heat of stove, it is said, may be pre-
vented by the addition of chloride of
calcium to the glue, which prevents its
driving so completely as to become
brittle. Glue thus treated will adhere
to glass, metals, ETC., and can be en-
ployed for atfiXing labels to bottles.
LAST year we paid foreign countries
$50, 900, 900 for wooden goods and SILL
100000 for manufactured goods.
| When we have in the country 20,000,-
900 more sheep than we now have, we
shall only produce what wool we use;
and yet there is no country on
earth where it would seem sheep
could be raised so profitably as in the
United States. But we are coming
every year nearer to supplying our own
markets with the wool they demand.
In 1875 the wool clip of the country
was nearly 100000 pounds, while
in 1860 it was only 100000 pounds.
National Granger.
THE Bulletin of the Mutual Ornitho-
logical Club has the following re-
markable anecdote of the intelligence
of a crow: ga tame crow COrotts
AnaeTicanats in my possession has re-
peatedly amused me by the novel
method he adopts to rid himself of
parasites. For this purpose he delib-
erately takes his stand on an ant,
mound, and permits the ants to crawl
over him and carry away the trouble,
some vermin. The operation seems
mutually agreeable to both parties
the ants quickly Selling upon the para,
sites and bearing them away. l have
also noticed the same habits in another
tame crow that l formerly had in my
possession"
AN interesting work which lately
appeared at Freiburg, by Prof. Ian.
dois, on the ''VOices of Animals" af
fOrds additional evidence of the uni.
versatility of vocal sounds among the
lower forms of animals, including the
mollusca. The author considers it as
beyond all question that ants possess q
vocal speech, inappreciable by human
ears, by which they are enabled to eX,
ercise those higher mental faculties tC
which they owe the development OF
the advanced social organization which
they exhibit in their communities.
Prof. LandOis' work is illustrated by
numerous microscOpical and other
drawings of his own, and forms an in!
teresting addition to our natural his
tory literature.
THE barometer Is now found to be
almost as useful to the coal miner as ii
is to the mariner. The damage in coal
mines consequent especially on the
sudden fall of the mercury in the
barometer tube, is occasioned in this
wise: When the glass is high and the
pressure of the superintendent atmos-
phere cOrrespOndingly great, the dan
gerous carburetted hydrogen is pre-
vented from issuing from the walls and
sides of the coal seam; when the pres
sure is suddenly lessened, the gas es-
capes from numberless chinks and
crannies, and accommodating, sometimes
very rapidly, until it reaches the pro-
portion sufficient with common air to
produce an explosive compound, the
naked light that is harmless under
more favorable conditions suddenly
takes effect and deadly catastrophe is
the result. To the miner the barome-
ter is indispensable.