The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-02-10
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

ASIA MINOR is full of mineral wealth.
Mines of silver, lead, of copper, chrome,
coal and other valuable products are
known to exist in abundance, but only
pay for working, owing to the absence
of roads, when they are within few
miles from the sea
DURING the recent severe storm in
Germany, the subterranean lines of
telegraphy have proveds much better
than the others that the German Gov
ernment now proposes asking the
Reichstag for authority to greatly ex-
tend the underground system.
AN ingenious machine has been de-
vised for separating the sound cranber-
ries in barrel from the unsound. They
are poured into it at the rate of six bar
rels an hour, and the sound ones, hav-
ing elasticity, bound over a barrier,
while those decayed remain.
made at Pittsburgh, is drawn out Of
molten bar by means of rapidly re-
volving wheel at the rate of 1000 yards
minute. The weaving is done on
looms, about the same as with silk.
The coloring is done with minerals when
the glass is originally melted.
WHEN potatoes are frozen, the amount
of sugar they contain is doubled, the
starch undergoing corresponding di-
minution, while part of the protein
passes from the coagulable into the solu-
BILE form. During the process of rotting
the potato loses half its nitrogenous con-
stituents and the whole of the sugar.
BERLIN Is preparing for an lnterna-
tional exhibition in 1882 or 1888, illus
trating the history and development of
railways and the various systems of rail-
way construction, together with rolling
stock and railway material of all de-
scriptions.
VARIOUS trees in equinoctial regions
produce caoutchouc, or "India-rub-
ber;" but our own continent furnishes
the most productive in various species
of Hovea-tall trees which form huge
forests in Brazil. The sap is gathered
and thickened, much as we get sugar
from maple trees in the Eastern States.
THERE are six moss factories in New
Orleans and vicinity. All the moss
ginned is shipped abroad, as the furni-
ture manufacturers do not buy it ginned,
preferring to pick and clean it them
selves. The total amount paid for the
rough moss by the ginners, upholsterers,
and mattress-makerso of the city is above
$500, 900 per year.
AN invention which will considerably
influence architecture and sculpture has
just been made by DR.. Gehring at Land
shut, in Bavaria. DIR. Gehring, by
means of an enameling liquid, renders
any kind of stone or cement harder than
granite. and gives it the absolute and
indelible appearance of any other min
eral that may be desired. The enamel
may also be applied to metal, which it
is said to completely protect from rust.
THE orange crop of Jamaica, Flor
ida, Havana and Louisiana, it is said
in New York, will prove as extensive as
| ever before, and oranges from those
places will no longer command the
fancy prices at which they were sold a
few years ago. Barrels holding from
400 to 500 really fine oranges will sell
for about So, and very fancy fruit may
bring as high as SO. The orange crop
of Italy and Spain is an abundant one
| this season, and extra Messina and
Sicily oranges will be sold on the
streets by the holidays for less than ten
cents per dozen. Valencias, the most
delicious of the Mediterranean oranges,
will be both abundant and cheap in the
| early spring.