The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-23
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

JAPANESE horseshoes are made OF
straw-mats and so slightly fastened to
the animals feet that the principal
streets in the cities are strewn with cast
off sandals of the ponies.
THE locomotives used on the railroads
of the United States are doing the work
of $4,000, 900 horses, while the census Of
1870 aggregates horses of all ages at less
than 100000.
IT is estimated that Minnesota re.
quires five million pounds of Irvine to
bind its wheat crop, and the Farmers
Board of Trade recommends home man.
ufacture, and the cultivation of hemp
for that purpose.
NUTMEGs grow upon tree from %
to 80 feet high, which bears fruit re-
sembling in form and size the seckel
pear. When ripe the outer shell of this
fruit Sreaksa revealing an inner case Of
bright red, known TO commerce as mace.
This in its turn is removed, and the nut
meg is found inclosed in third shell,
harder than either of the others.
A DISCOVERY has just been made by
NJ. Toussaint, q professor in the vete-
rinary school at Toulouse, by which he
has succeeded in inoculating animals
with vaccine taken from an infected one,
and rendering them proof against cpl
denies, such as euro-pneumonia, etc.
M. Pasteur, it is well known, was success
full in vaccinating poultry, and thus pre-
serving them from the attack of what is
known as chicken cholera.
A MIXTURE of sulphur and grease has
been in use for some time as lubricant
for the bearings of heavy shafting. Sui
phur alone, as is we'll known, has the
effect, when properly introduced, of
cooling a hot bearing. But why sui
phur should so act has not been well
understood. Won Heeren offers this
explanation: Fine metallic dust is form
ed when a journal becomes hot, and
this dust, combining with the sulphur,
produces soft and greasy compound
of decidedly antifrictional character.
The coloring principle of the indigo
plant is contained in the stems and
leaves, which yield colorless liquid
changed by fermentation into the ia
miliar dye. About two months after
the plants are sown they produce pale
red flower. They are then cut, thrown
into large stone watts, covered with wa
ter and held down by heavy weights.
Fermentation begins in about twelve or
fourteen hours; the whole mass ap-
pears to be boiling and bubbles of pur.
pie air arise. When this process is fin
ished the liquid is drawn off into another
vat and violently stirred to precipitate
the coloring matter which is left to SET
tie. Again the water is drawn off,
leaving the indigo, which is dried and
prepared for export.
MAJ. MAJENDI, in speaking of the
ignition of gunpowder by simple per-
cussion, says; "There is ample testi-
mony that gunpowder can be exploded
by blow with comparative ease, the
fact being that the temperature at which
gunpowder explodes (about $40 to 500
degrees) is readily reached by percus-
sion or friction if the powder be So
placed that there is no absorption of the
energy by the cushioning of the blow,
and this temperature is a long way
within that at which heat becomes visi-
BILE. Copper tools may be made to give
out sparks. have had much expert
ence of this in some experiments which
l made. The great thing for young
men to avoid, whatever tools they use,
is the exercise of force beyond what is
absolutely necessary, or disaster may
follow"