The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-04-05
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


The picking and drying of black
berries forms an important industry in
North Carolina.
The average daily wages paid to
New York sewing women is fifty cents
for fifteen hours work.
The curious fact that the usual heat
produced by friction is absent when the
articles are magnetized is just now be-
ing discussed by scientists, who are
seeking an explanation.
"A physician recommends that all
the wood used in the interior construc-
ton of houses, and all the plain sur
faces of plaster. should be thoroughly
oiled or vanished, so that the power of
absorption of foul air and gases should
be destroyed.
1t is estimated that about so. 600. 900
gounds of cotton-seed oil were used. in
the United States during last year in
the adulteration of lard, and that it
was mixed with about twice rs much of
other material, most of which was pure
Recent researches by Prof Brown
Sequard demonstrate that liquid OBJ
tanned from the vapor of air from the
lungs is so poisonous that dose of
twenty centigrammes Qess than four
grains) sufficed to kill dog in about
seven hours.
"A writer n Science comes to the
conclusion that as a result of his in
vestigations sit seems idle to discuss
further the influence of forests upon
rainfall from the economic point of
view, as it is evidently too slight to be
of the least practical Importance. Map
has not yet invented a method of con-
trolling rainfall"
Berlin has gradually become the
headquarters 81 the carved-wood in
dustry, supplantiug Switzerland. Six
hundred artists in wood-carving. the
same number of turner's, and seven
hundred carpenters are engaged in the
production of such articles as cigar
cases, newspaper and picture frames,
napkin-rings, etc. The value of the
annual export of these tribes is put at
81, 100000.
1t is found that living creatures
brought up from sea depths Of four
miles or more. suffer greatly from the
changed conditions of pressure and
temperature. At those vast depths the
pressure is tremendous, and the tenn
perature is comparatively low. On
being brought to the surface. the deep
sea creatures are sometimes torn in
pieces by the powerful expansion of
their organisms occasioned by decrease
in pressure, and sometimes they abso-
lutely melt away before the eyes of the
beholder."
The secondary nature of the gravel
deposits in which placer mines occur
impli $ that they are found at an
average lower altitude than the quartz
veins, from which they are derived by
erosion. The average height of placer
mines is about 5000 feet, the highest
being 10000 feet above the sea level.
Owing to their mode of formation,
placer mines are usually more accessi-
bic than the quartz, and do not require
so great an amount of material for their
workings.
M. P. Ledeboer said before the
Academy of Sciences in Paris that al
though it had long been known that a
magnet raised to red heat loses its
magnetic properties. it had only lately
been determined by direct measure
ment at what actual degree of tempera-
ture iron ceases to be magnetic body.
By his experiments he showed that iron
remains magnetic up to $50 degrees c..
after which a rapid variation is noticed
in its magnetic condition. At $50 de-
grees the magnetic properties are
scarcely perceptible. while at no de-
grees they disappear altogether.