The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-02-21
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

They are beginning to import into
England fresh meat by the cargo from
Australia UiG Suez.
"A dye called cauline is extracted
from red cabbage, and used in the
manufacture of colored feathers and
wooden goods.
FIX ON yield of 800, 900 in bullion
in 1865, the Georgia gold fields have
advanced to $1,000,000 per annum,
with a promise of larger returns next
year.
The total quantity of goods carried
1on the canals OF New York during the
past season was 1862, 43O tons, and
tolls amounting to $941, 541.92 were
paid.
1T seems that our importation of
iron ore in 1880 will be larger than in
1879, large contracts having already
been made. Probably 500, 900 tons will
Ae imported.
The glucose manufacturers in Buff
falo make from $4,000 to $4,000 per
week The stock in one concern, orig
inally valued at 800 each share, is now
worth $4,000.
"A Chicago chemist found poison in
twelve samples of sugar, in strip, in
vinegar, in pickles, in baking powder
and in the coloring matter of fourteen
samples of cloth.
-Brevet Brigadier General H. L.
Abbott, in g paper read at recent
meeting of the United States Military
Service, declared that dynamite con-
.sisting of seventy-fve per cent of gly-
cerine and twenty-five per cent. of Ker-
selguhr was the best explosive for SUBJ
marine warfare.
The croton bug (BlGtta Gern1anica)
does, on the authority of Mr.. Weston
Flint, of the Boston American Library
Association, great injury to books by
attacking the starchy matter used in
binding and gliding. pyrethrum pow
der sprinkled on the shelves is the most
effective preventive.
"A species of dwarf cactus album
dsnt in Lower California is rich in fibre,
said to be excellent for mattresses. 1t
is reported that an experimental ma
chine, costing only $500, converts the
raw material into white, elastic fibre
with great rapidity, and promises to
AONuSO bhO SOoU ttuo lHlpIONO UuC Qutll-
.ty of such goods very materially.
Patent Office Work. Last year the
work of the Patent Office showed
falling off, the applications being 357
less than in the previous year, and the
receipts were reduced by $3l, 10.
This decline is attributed by the Set
eratifc american to the attempt in
Congress last winter to change the law
to the injury OF inventors, and the de-
termination expressed by inventors at
the time to withhold applications until
assured that their rights would not be
open to invasion.
-Contradicting work of some au-
'GhOrity, M. Andre says it is not correct
that no species of frog known possesses
any poison organs, and states that
while engaged in scientific inquiries in
South America in 1875 and 1876 he dis
covered frog in the northwest part of
that continent beneath whose skin lies
one of the most virulent poisons. The
SIndians of the region between the Bay
" of Buonaventura and the Isthmus of
Z BARREN extract this poison, which they
= call neacra, by roasting the live frog,
: and use it for poisoning arrows. The
. effects of the administration of the
poison resemble those following the use
oof curare.
-Cheapening Telegraphy.-Atten-
s. ton has been OF late years constantly di-
D. rected to the discovery of modes and
~ means by which labor and cost may be
reduced in the working of the telegraph
system, and with gratifying results. In
1873 the Western Union Telegraph
81 Company sent IA, 456, S32 messages at
a cost of Sc, 575, 055; in 1879 the cost of
transmitting 23,070, LOG messages was
only Sc, 100000. The same company
have after seven tests agreed to adopt
. dynamo electric machines in their
work, by which their floors will be re-
lieved of weight of sixty tons, the diff
ference between the weight of the bat
teries and the new plan.
The California Courts have at last
decided in favor of the trustees of the
Lick estate, and with the 100000 be-
queathed for the purpose they will at
once proceed to carry out the Observa-
tory project, and push it forward as
rapidly as possible. The directions
with regard to the purchase of a tele-
scope have been made quite difficult of
fulfllment by the recent order of
thirty-inch refractor for the Pulkowa
Observatory. This will require that
the instrument shall be the largest in
the world. Unless the trustees await
the success of the attempt, still doubt
full, to make a thirty-inch disk, they
will have to order one still larger, at
Che risk of considerably impairing the
bequest.