The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-03-15
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

in New York 5000 girls are en-.
gagged in stripping tobacco at average
wages Of about forty cents day.
1t takes every year million
horses tails to keep a Pawtucket Or
II haircloth factory in running order.
Electric appliances are now SIC
cessfully used in the automatic regula-
ton of temperature in buildings heated
by steam or hot air.
Analysis of natural gas shows the
proportion Of each constituent in one
hundred parts of the gas to be as fol-
lows: Carbolic acid, carbOnic oxid.
Clio each; oxygen. $40; defiant gas.
/; ethylic hydride, ); marsh gas, G7;
hydrogen, %; nitrogen, 8.
The lowest barometric pressure OF
record is q. 13j inches. which was OBJ
served in 1885 during storm over the
Bay of Bengal. This storm was also
remarkable for its smallness-its di-
ameter being only from 100 to 20c
miles-for its fiercencSs. and for its in
draught toward the center.
"A new tanning agent, called pyro-
fuscine, has been extracted from coal
dust by means of caustic soda. The
tanning process is somewhat compii
Gated, but it is claimed to be fifty per
cent. cheaper than the bark process.
and twenty to thirty per cent. cheaper
than the alum process.
"A German geographer, r. Credner,
does not think that all fresh water
lakes in which marine animals have
been discovered were necessarily once
portions of the ocean. Many of these
creatures, he says, may have found
their way from the sea Up the rivers,
and have accommodated themselves to
the changed conditions of their new
home. The occurrence of marine ami
mails has been noted in frcSh-water
lakes in Europe. Asia and Africa, as
well as on this continent
DR.. Prudden, of the laboratory of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons,
New York, has ascertaincd that bacteria
abound in ice. and moreover that the
organisms can survive a large amount
of freezing. 1t has been established that
bacteria are the cause of number of
diseases. and the presumption is pretty
strong that sewage coming from, among
other places. the abodes of the sick
would contain a kind of bacteria which
had better not be included in ice-water
that is to be swallowed.
Philadelphia claims to make and
eat more candy in proportion to popu-
lation than any other city in the cOun-
try. There are eightv-seven manufact-
urers aud wholesalers and 1.200 retail
ers, and they use more than $1,000, 900
of capital and consumes 100, 900 tons of
sugar every year. Caramels are a great
speciality of the trade in that city. For
other places much chocolate and wal
nut candy and many gum drops are
made. Six tons of gum drops were
shipped from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh
the week before Christmas. Brooklyn
makes the most chewing gum, it is said.
and Boston eats the most of it.
M. de Candolle. a French investi-
gator, has come to the conclusion from
his researches that women have n larger
of brown eyes than men.
He also finds that, when both parents
have eyes of 4 like color. the chances
are lightweight to twelve that their
who arrive at the age of ten
years (when the color of the eye is
fixed), will have eyes of the same color.
When the parents have eyes of different
colors, the chances are fifty-tive to forty
five in favor of brown as against blue
Or gray eyes in the children. He is also
of opinion that the health of the bru-
nette type is, as rule, superior to that
Of the blonde type.