The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1888-08-25
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
The largest soap mandatory in
Philadelphia, atwhich l, 100, 900 pounds
are boxed every week, was founded in
1858 by a thrifty German, who walked
into the city that year with only $25 in
his pockets.
-Verre givre, or boar frost glass, is
an article now made in Paris, SO called
from the pattern upon it, which re.
sembles the feathery forms traced by
frost on the inside of the windows in
cold weather.
-Winemakers are experimenting
with electricity. 1t is said that If an
selectric current is sent through bar
rel of wine the liquid loses its rawness,
gains in bouquet, and in every way
takes on the qualities that used to
come only with years of age.
The high price Of gum arabic has
led chemists to seek for a substitute
for it, and two products--one from flax
seed and the other from starch-have
been evolved, which, it is believed,
will take the place of the Arabian gum
in all the preparations in which that
article is now used.
"A third crystalline form of carbon
has been discovered in meteoric iron
from Western Australia. The mineral,
which is to be called cliftonite, resem-
bles the diamond in the shape of its
crystals, but in color and other respects
it is more like graphite.
-Copper-plated sheet steel is already
taking an important place in various
industries. The sheet is made of de-
carbonized steel. After being rolled to
the proper thickness, it is electroplated
with copper on both sides and timed
on one side, in which condition it Is
found to be.a better article for many
purposes than sold sheet copper.
The new machine just invented for
printing postal-cards prints them from
the roll and turns them outin packages
ready for delivery. 1t runs them off at
the rate of 800 a minute, with paper
bands pasted around each twenty-five.
1t is said one man can look after two
machines.
1t is stated that not less than ninety
nine per cent. of all the fower-seeds
sold in this country are raised abroad,
chiefly in Germany. In that country
immense tracts of land are devoted to
the growth of flowers for seed, and the
business is carried on in the most care
full and systematic manner.
Soft soap, with half its weight in
pearlash-one ounce of mixture in
about one gallon of boiling water-is
in everyday use in most engineers
shops in the drip-pans used for turning
articles bright in wrought iron and
steel. With this kind of treatment the
work. though constantly moist, does
not rust, and bright nuts are immersed
in it for days till wanted and retain
their polish.
Between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter, at a distance of about $50, 000,-
600 miles from the sun, there revolve
some 265 little bodies, whose diameters
vary from eight to ten miles to 200.
Whether they are, as Professor Young
once described them, parts ''of a plan
ct spoiled in the making" or not, is
unknown, and perhaps may never be
solved. But certain it IS that there are
always numberless little celestial
bodies of this character, whose revolu-
tons around the sun are performed as
unerringly as those of the larger plan
cts. They are called planetoids, from
two Greek words, which mean resem,
bling planet or wanderer.