The Republican., 1889-03-02
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Ore stamping by electricity is con.
sidered the only sufficient economical
system to permit OF low-class ores be-
ing treated at profit. -,
I'm Greece, an Industrial school for
girls has been opened at Athens. Four
hundred girls are employed there, with
the happiest results.
Since the telephone was established
in Switzerland, in 1860. sixty-one towns
have been provided with it. and there
are now 6, 944 telephone stations. 1000
of which are in Geneva
In the new process OF metal-plating
the inventor does away with batteries
and dynamos and depends upon a
double electrical composition. In cop
per-plating cast-iron an alkaline bath
is used in place Of an acidulated one.
Experiments in raising frogs arti-
ficially for market have not proved
successful. There is considerable de-
mand for frogs legs in our large
markets, which is supplied from thinly
settled districts; they have become
scarce in regions near our markets.
The uses OF the cotton plant are
developing rapidly. Formerly the fiber
of the blossom was only part utilized.
Then the seed began to supply large
proportion Of the "olive oil'' and
'1ard" in the country. and now the
hulls are found to be cheaper and bet
ter than the wood for paper pulp.
-Sunfower seed is coming to the
front as an article of commercial value.
As an admixture to chicken food its
merits are indisputable. Veterinarians
use it in a medicinal way in the treat
ment of horses. Its growth is con-
sidered of use in the prevention of ma
laria, and the extraction of a valuable
oil from it is looked-for result.
Many entomologlsts are of tho
opinion that the antenna OF insects are
organs of hearing, though it is proba-
BILE that the auditory apparatus in
many insects is not confined to the an
tenna. Thus grasshoppers and crick-
cts appear to have ears in their legs,
and the crustacean genus Mysis is pro-
vided with auditory organs in its tail.
Equally curious arrangements have
been observed in other insects.
If anything is needed to convince
men that gas is the fuel of the future it
is found in the recent scientific expert
ments which show that by the very
best method known of burning coal not
more than to 10 per cent. of the heat
is used, the remainder being wasted
by imperfect combustion, or carried
off through the chimney. When the
coal is turned into gas and the gas
burned, nearly so per cent of the heat
can be utilized.
The fact that the elementary SUBJ
stances now number, according to
chemists, full seventy, shows an in
crease, with the last fifty years, of
nearly one-fourth in the number known.
The size of an atom of oxygen or nitro
gen is said to have a diameter of one
ten-millionth part of centimeter; they
dC oup pOoSu W 10 III d Sttt0 vi COl-
stant motion, at the rate of seventy
miles per minute, and. to make them
visible, the present highest known
magnifying power of the microscope
would have to be increased nearly
thousand fold.
1t is only about once in fifteen
years that Mars comes as near as &c.
100000 miles. Its orbit is so eccentric
that the interval between it and the
orbit of the earth varies all the way
from 36,000.O00 miles to 61,000,0 900;
and it is only now and then that, as
the two planets circle round in their re-
spective tracks, the passing point is
where the tracks come nearest. The
last instance of very close approach
was in 1877: the next will be in 1892.
Mars is much smaller than the earth.
it's diameter being only about 4,200
miles. Its bulk. therefore. is only
about one-seventh. and its surface
about three-tenths OF the earth's.