The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-09-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Tobacco gives employment TO 3D.
900 persons in New York. Germans,
Bohemians and English predominant,
In France they now use for steam
and water pipe joint gas jets made OF
wood pulp. which are boiled in linseed
oil. They give satisfactory results, and
are not subject to decomposition at
high temperature.
Almost the hardness of the dia-
mond is said to be given by German
workmen to steel-engraving tools. The
tools are made white hot, plunged re-
peatedly into sealing wax until cold,
and then just touched with oil of tur-
pentine.
In Russia there are sixty-seven i'm
mense spinning mills, employing an
aggregate of 100000 spindles. The
principal centers of this industry are
the provinces of Moscow and Vladimir.
Russia has 4SS cotton-weaving estab-
lishments, which give employment to
$4,000.
"A Philadelphia German named
Kleeman has discovered a process for
making sugar out of 'black strap" the
refuse from molasses. The "black
strap" is thinned with water and mixed
with Ignite, after which it is purified.
The result is said to be fair quality
of sugar.
The objection against making lead
pencils out ofpaper instead of wood has
been overcome. One of the difficulties
has beer the toughness of the paper
covering and its consequent resistance
to the action of knife. By new pro-
cess the molecular cohesion of the pa
per is modified in such a manner that
it can be cut as easily as cedar wood.
An ingenious device for preventing
the odor of cooking from escaping into
a room has been patented. The inven-
ton is of the simplest possible descrip-
ton, and consists of hood with folded
sides or leaves, which covers the sides
of the stove. The odor passes into the
hood, and is carried directly into the
chimney.
From Investigations carried on by
DR.. Rappoport in St. Petersburg, it
would seem that the quantity OF gas
trio juice secreted during sleep is much
smaller than that secreted during the
daytime or active life. The digestive
power is also less. Pepsin is found to
much the same amount; but chloride
of sodium and hydrochloric acid are in
smaller proportions.
The Engineer says that among
things that never will be settled are the
following: Whether long screw-driver
is better than a short one of the same
family. Whether water-wheels run
faster at night than they do in the day
time. The best way to harden steel.
Which side of the belt should run next
the pulley. The proper speed of line
shafts. The right way to lace belts.
Whether compression is economical or
the reverse. The principle of the
steam injector.
Experiments have recently been
made at Kiel by the German naval au-
thorities on torpedoes made of paper
and worked by electricity. The re-
suits are said to have been very salts
factory. The torpedo is about eleven
feet long by sixteen inches diameter,
and is made of twelve layers of paper,
fourteen inches thick, compressed and
vanished. The motor is mounted ON
three paper ribs and driven from the
ship or shore by a cable, the steering
and ignition of the charge being con-
trolled through the same cable.
To the progress of invention, more
than to all other causes combined, is
due the important sociological fact
that the condition of women has been
vastly improved during the last for or
five decades. Invention has relegated
the coarser and harder work of women
to machinery, and has opened up new
and pleasant avenues of profitable
employment for them. Witness the
telegraph, the telephone, and type
writing machines by which hundreds
of thousands of women and girls earn
their living. The movement is still
onward and upward. Age.