Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-03-28
Science and Industry.

In Scotland SS furnaces are now
blowing, as compared with 119 this
time last year-a difference of 80.
A species of onion has been lately
discovered by A. Regal in Central
Asia, in the hills near Kenedscha,
whith proves to be the parent of that
cultivated in our gardens.
Illinois has Al 200 square miles Of
coal bed, averaging more than 40 feet
one-sixth of the corn and nearly one
tenth of all the hay raised il the
country.
NJ. Piclet is not satisfied with liqui-
flying gases; he expects to solidify
them, and has already obtained some
particles, observable by polarized light,
which are believed to be crystals OF
oxygen.
The output OF gold from the Black
Hills in 1877 Is estimated at over 50,
0OO, 900. 1t is thought the yield tn Is
year, owing to more mining and bet
ter facilities for treating ores, will be
more than double whnt.it Was last.
A steamboat engineer has invented
a rotary boiler broom for cleaning boil
ers while the boat is under way. 1t is
operated by turning small crank +,
which moves the broom in the boiler
forward and back, sweeping the boiler
clean, it is claimed in five minutes, and
dropping the mud and scale into re-
celver.
A terrible accident recently occurred
during surgical operation at Lyons,
France. Ether had been administered
to produce insensibility, and the actual
cautery of red hot iron was employed
in the operation. Unfortunately the
ether took fire, and the patient, u
young lady, was badly burned about
the face, and is disfgured for life. The
only wonder is that similar accident
has never occurred before. The Lam
Get regards chlOroform as less liable to
ignition than ether.
AZ recent meeting of the ST. Louis
Academy of Sciences Mr.. j. A Ducas
presented drawings of the ruins OF a
palace at Xayi, Chiapas, Mexico. Some
discoveries have just been made in the
subterranean portions of the ruin. 1t
is supposed that a library has. been
found, perhaps OF sacred writings,
which are contained upon very large
number of tablets, each six by eight
inches in surface and a hall an inch
thick. The material is spoken of as
terra Gotta. The Inscriptions appear
to be in language possessed of an al
phabet, but they have not yet been
translated.
A description is given of paper car
pet now made in England, ard de-
signed to initiate parquet flooring, the
paper being printed in patterns to inn
itate different woods from photographs,
SO that, as it is stated, the esemblance
is absolutely perfect. The floor is first
prepared by being made perfectly lev
el, and the crevices filled up with plas-
ter of Paris; over the surface, as thus
prepared, hession is stretched, and on
this, first, lining paper and then the
patterned paper is pasted, the whole
being finished with coating of a Pc
culiar kind of varnish, described as
wonderfully hard and wear-resisting.
This kind of csrpeting can be kept
perfectly clean with the greatest ease,
and though the wear of paper carpet
ing may be thought problematicel, the
inventor states that he has had rooms
covered with it for some sixteen
months, without showing any appreci.
able signs of wear. Its appearance,
also, is very satisfactory to the eye.