Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1881-03-26
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Discoveries of clear sheet mica
have recently been made near Baldy
Mountain, twenty miles northwest from
Las Vegas, which can be cut in large
clear sheets.
"A common process for discovering
the presence of vegetable fiber in wooden
goods is to take half dozen sticks of
caustic potash and put them into a gill
of water, which boil. Put the sample
into the boiling solution, and let it re-
main about twenty minutes, in which
time all the animal matter will be dis
solved, and that of vegetable origin will
remain intact.
The manufacture of cheap candies
from white earth, or terra alba, mixed
with little sugar and glucose, Is car
ried on extensively in New York. A
census taker who investigated the con-
fectionery business reports that 70 per
cent. of most candies is composed of
these substances, and some Others, no-
tably "gum drops" contain still less
sugar. Or,, lrr
-Itis reported that a wild plant, which
grows so profusely on high lands in
Louisiana that the planters have tried
for years to exterminate it as pest, has
been discovered to yield woody fiber
closely resembling jute, but of a much
finer quality. 1t is claimed that the
process of preparation is very simple,
and far less expensive than that of jute
or ramie. The planters name for it is
the American or Creole tea plant.
Prof. Carnelly of Sheffield has
shown that liquids can be reduced to a
solid or frozen state and still retain their
heat. In order to convert a solid into a
liquid, the pressure must be above GER
tain point. AS long, therefore, as the
necessary pressure Is maintained, no
amount of heat will liquify it. BY OBJ
serving this law, Prof. Carnelly succeed
ed in freezing some water in glass
vessel which remained so hot Us to burn
the hand.
Some observations made at Giessen
last winter by Herr Hoffman throw light
on the way in which plants are injured
in time of hard frost. The great ad-
vantage of hilly position was then APP
parent; the plants SO situated took little
or no harm, while in the valley there
was extensive injury. The injury, too,
decreased in proportion to elevation
above the valley. Still more instructive
was the fact that one and the same bush
was killed in its foliage on the south side,
while on the north side it remained
green. The author infers that it is not a
particular degree of cold that kills a
plant, but the amount of quick thaw-
ing.
The ''reSonator" is the name given
by Signor Bach to his new invention for
increasing the volume and power of
the human voice when singing. This
appliance is based on the Office per-
| formed by the hard portion of the pal
ate, which acts as a kind of sounding
board when the mouth is open for sing
ing, and it is for the purpose of increas-
ing the efficiency of the palate in this
respect that the resonator has been de-
signed. 1t consists OF a gold plate fitted
to the roof of The mouth, close above the
upper teeth-much in the same way as
the gold plate of a set of artificial teeth
the plate having attached to it another
gold plate which is convex downward in
both directions. A hollow sounding
board, as it may be termed, is thus
formed, and is said to have a remarka.
bic effect on the volume of sound pro
dueible by the person wearing the in.
strument. 1t is also stated that the ap
paratus has no preiudicial effect upoT
the distinethess Of articulation, and thai