The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-10-13
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

O'@iNSL FN'ND Nv ~ - u -
--Tannin has been discovered as an
animal substance by NJ. Villon, a
French chemist, who finds that corn
weevils contain about three per cent.
of it.
The Germans have discovered that
the pollen of the PLANE tree produces
influenza. exactly like what in this
country is called "rose cold" and Ebay
fever"
French physicians are reporting
great success with the prompt internal
use of an antiseptics in cases Of typhoid
fever. After disinfection of the intes-
tines, according to this method, the
disease runs a short course.
Paper is now manufactured from
seaweed, according to a process re-
Gently invented in Japan. The article
made in this way is said to be so strong
as to be almost untearable, is suffi-
ciently transparent to admit Of its being
used as window glass, and takes all
colors about equally well.
DR.. Zambaco of Constantinople,
who has lived for several years among
the lepers of the far East, says that he
has mover met single instance Of cOnta-
gion, although the malady is certainly
hereditary, the children of lepers be-
coming leprous at the age of ten, fiji
teen and twenty years generally.
The increasing application of cleo
tricity in mining work is based on the
solid foundation Of economy attained.
The Aspen Mining and Smelling Com
pany, which was one of the first to put
electric motors underground for pump
ing, hosting and haulage, have effected
a large saving in the cost of their ore
through this means
j. Norman Lockyer, the English
astronomer, computes the total number
of stars of which some knowledge can
be gained with the optical aid now
available, at from 10000, 900 to 50,000,-
900. Only about 5000 are visible to
the naked eye-3,O0O in the Northern
hemisphere and 5000 in the Southern.
After experiments on the relative
merits OF castor oil and of olive oil as
lubricants, tho italian Admiralty has
ordered that the exposed parts Of the
ships machinery be fabricated eXclu-
sively with castor oil, and that mineral
oils be used for cylinder and similar
fabrication.
When the first electric telegraph
was established, the speed of transmits
sion was from four to five words
minute with the fve-needIe instrument;
in 1849, tho average rate for newspaper
messages was seventeen words
a minute; the present pace of the cleo
trio telegraph between London and
Dublin, where the Wheatstone instru-
ment is employed, reaches four hun
dred and sixty-three words. And thus,
what was regarded as miraculous sixty
years ago has multiplied q hundred
fold in half a century Science.
The art of tempering copper so as
to give it hardness and fine cutting
edge was known to the Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans, but it is one OF the
lost arts. Scientific men have vainly
endeavored to redisdover it. 1t is pos
sible that the Indians of Ecuador have,
as stated in the paragraph, accidentally
found out how to do this, but we want
more conclusive evidence than has yet
been furnished before we believe it.
1t would be of some value to civiliza-
ton if the art were rediscovered, but
would not have nearly the importance
it once had, since we have iron and
steel now which do the work better
than the copper tools and weapons
ever did.