The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-07-05
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

-Krupp, the German gun-maker,
has introduced into his works q novel
way of recovering the coils of guns that
have become useless. The handle is
made red-hot, and then liquid carbonic
acid is poured In, producing O cold that
causes shrinkage and allows the coils to
be removed.
The clippings of sole leather in New
England shoe factories were formerly
regarded as worthless, and the smell Of
their burnings were q popularity of
such towns as Lynn and Salem. These
scraps are now stamped into buttons for
clothes and fancy tack-heads for up
holstery, and the long familiar odor is
missed.
The little unicellular alga, which
makes the red snow, and figured in
Captain Ross's account of his Arctic
expedition il 1919, has been found on
the top of the Wasatch Mountains. Bot
anists call 1t the protococcus nivalis. 1t
increases rapidly after it once begins to
grow, and makes patches Of snow as red
as blood. t.n
Plants do not take up water by their
leaves from q moist atmosphere, but
their roots must be supplied with plenty
of water, which viii be taken up by the
root-hairs into the plant. The water
thus taken mp Is not pure, but contains
certain mineral substances in solution
These pass through the root TO the bum
dies of the stem, then to the leaf, where
the water Is transpired.
"A company has been formed in
South Florida, it is said, to manufac-
ture an active fertilizer from the shell
mari, which Is found In large quantities
on some portions Of the upper St. Johns.
1t Is proposed to grind the shell, and
supply ammonia by adding the decom-
posed flesh and bones of fish. which can
be obtained in large quantities in the
lakes Of the upper river.
The Operator says it takes nerve,
patience and good temper to make a
good telephone operator, and those who
lack any one of these essentials had bet
ter let the profession alone. Only one
person out OF five, on the average, has
good telephone voice. They speak too
low OF too loud. Not more than one
person out Of twenty has the voice which
a telephone operator should have
pleasant, even, plain, and devoid of Pc
culiarities. Let one of the best opera
tors talk to you over twenty miles of
wire, and you viii fancy that he stands
beside you.
The Chinese in San Francisco are
reported to be directing their attention
to type-setting, and, strange TO say, En-
glish type-setting, some Of their number
having learned the compositor's avoca-
ton in the printing offices of the En-
glish journals published at Canton and
Hong Kong. They are said to be al
ready doing all the type-setting on two
weeklies published in San Francisco,
but the names Of the papers are kept
secret, since 1t would practically mean
their ruin il it became known, in the ex-
cited condition Of public feeling at pres
ent existing there. y,
Experiments made at Leipsic with
q cuirass formed of o new kind of steel
preparation show some very satisfactory
results. The metal of this cuirass, as
described, Is only about three-fiftieths of
an inch thick, and Is lined inside with q
layer of wool; the cuirass itself Is four
teen inches wide and ten inches high,
being intended only to protect the heart
and lungs, and weighs two and one
fourth pounds. Eleven rounds were
fired at 1t, at q distance of 175 yards,
from Martini breech-loading rife, and,
of eight bullets which struck The cuirass,
only two pierced the metal, while even
these were completely fattened and rc-
manned in the wooden lining, 50 that
man wearing the cuirass would have
been Hninjured. Its lightness constitutes
4 marked advantage.