The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-12-29
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


About $50 species of fishes arc
known in the waters of Indiana, ac-
cording to Profs. Jordan and Ever
mann, and about fifty may be regarded
as food fishes.
Tho interesting and important dis
covery has been made that the fila
ments of incandescent lamps soon break
when used near moving belts or other
sources of frictional electricity. The
life OF such lamps may be greatly in
creased by covering them with wire
netting connected with the earth.
"A new material is announced, I'M
der the name of culluvert, being made
by passing paper, or any form of cellu-
lose through a bath of nitric acid; the
glutinous surfaces thus produced are
then pressed together and washed,
forming a very tough and hard sub
stance, useful in some of tho industrial
arts.
Science has claimed the sponge
| fishery of the Mediterranean. The ma
tive divers, who could stay under
water not more than two minutes, are
being driven out by men in regular
diving armor, who can work by the
hour. A German professor has origin
ated a method of planting cuttings
| from sponges, and it is being prose-
cuted with success.
Old as is the theory that trees pro-
mote regularity and plentitude of rain
fall, and generally accepted as though
an axiom in natural philosophy. it is
being vigorously attacked, says the
SANITARY NeoOS. The trouble has been
that only facts favorable to this hy-
pothesis have been available. Now
the result Of impartial investigation
seems to show that cause and effect
/ have been badly mixed.
-Masons will be interested in the
invention by an Eastern man Of two
kinds OF plastering composition. That
to be used for the first coat consists of
sand, sawdust, plaster of paris, Stacked
lime. sugar and carbonate of soda.
while that for the second coat is made
of cream of tartar, pumice stone, sugar,
. lime, and plaster Of paris, each cOmpo-
sitiOn being compounded and applied
in proportions and after a manner de-
scribed. Both compositions have been
patented.
Professor Brown. Sequard has been
making experiments to determine
whether the human breath was capa-
BILE of producing poisonous effects.
From the condensed watery vapor of
the expired air or breath, he obtained
a poisonous liquid, which, when in
jected under the skin of rabbits, pro-
duced almost immediate death. The
rabbits died without commissions, the
heart and large blood vessels being en-
gorged with blood. This seems to
show that human breath contains
volatile poisonous principle which is
more doloterious than carbonic acid.
A Belfast machinist has discovered
a process by which the fbers of the
plant rheea can be readily separated
from their woody and gummy cover
ing, thus producing Il fiber at q low
price which will admit of being used
for the manufacture of rope, cOrdage
and woven goods. Rheea is plant
grown very widely in Southern and
Eastern Asia, and one capable of Gull
tivation in the temperate parts OF
Europe and America. 1t is the strong
est vegetable fiber that has yet been
discovered, and is. besides, the smooth
est and most lustrOus.
There arc few. if any, branches of
manufactures, in which labor-saving
and time-saying devices are more gen.
orally used than in boot and shoe
making, and in none of them has in
ventive genius been more generously
rewarded than in this The inventor
who can save few cents in the cost of
making u pair of shoes is sure of
handsome fortune. often greater than
any of the people who use the product
of his ingenuity can hope for. For the
one object OF lasting shoes by ma
chincry no less than 295 different de-
vices have been patented. and
Leather RerieW.