The Opelousas courier., 1889-09-28
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

There is a paper leather imitation OF
calf-skin.
Newark, N. J., makes nine-tenths Of
the patent leather.
Aluminium is the most abundant metal
in the world, for every clay-bank con-
tains it.
The so-callad antique oak is ordinary
American oak sawed in a peculir way n
stained to look like the old English oak.
Water is not what it was when the
world was younger, or as it is even now
iii places where human lie IS not thlckly
congreeatcd aboutit.
What seems to be o reliable account of
q case Of hydrophobia cured by eating
the leaves of the maguey plant IS going
tie round Of the Mexican press.
Several glass manufacturers have COM
bined with a capital Of So, 700, 900 and
have purchased the Trenton, N. J.,'glass
works, the largest in the world.
The largest crane in the world is at the
Chatham (England) dockyard. 1t lifts
$40 tons, stands 1875 feet high and has a
radias Of seycnty-fye feet eight inches.
The quartz fbras drawn out by Mr.. c.
V. Boys are found to be only the i've
thousanGth of an inch thick, and are so
small that full grown spiders cannot climb
them.
Some Canadian land surveyors report
that they have discovered in the Rocky
Mountains one OF the richest coal oil de
posts ever found. Samples showed
nincty-one per Gems. lubricating oil.
The heat in Russia and other parts of
Northern Europe has been intense OF late.
The Central Observatory at st. Peters
burg has net recorded such a high tenn
peraturc at the same time Of the year since
f774.
II the new style Of telephone the mus
cular vibrations which accompany the
uttcrance of the words are transferred to
the electrodes through the medium of a
Don-electric button pressed against the
vocal cords OF the operator.
A stone has been discovered in Japan
WHICH IItlS lt:ilGsS t&TtiC iudlltICo to u
cement material, and can be worked up
for a much less price than the imported
article costs. The cement will bear a
weight OF 400 to 500 pounds per square
incn.
Great britain counts on having the
largest dynamo in the world. 1t is being
made for the new electric light works at
Deptford. The shaft Of the machine
will be turned out - a block of steel
weighing sevcnty-five tons, which has
just been cast in Glasgow.
In France the Western Railway Com
pany have been experimenting with steel
ties for two years and report very salts
factory results where the traffic is ex-
tTenely heavy, and wherever used. They
are so well pleased that they have ordere@
5000 additional ties of the same kind:
1t Is said that q patent has been taken
out to abolish sand in casting pipes.
Pipes are cast Sin super heated steam or
gas-jacketed metal moulds' and are said
to have many excellent qualities. Beyond
not being porous, the pipes are uniform,
sound and true as if turned or bored by
a lathe.
The SaAitary Neaes quotes an account
Of a certain tribe in Bengal, India, the
OSwals, of Marwac, who are forbidden by
their religion to eat the flesh of any ami
NAL Or to drink any alcoholic liquor, and
among whom cholera is unknown, al
though it has several times appeared
among ~ncighboring tribes.
It is not generally known That the
young lit f1sh have an eye on each side
Of the body and it is only in the adult
stage that theeyes are both on one side
There has been much discussion among
scientific naen rs to the mode in which
the chsHge takes place, but in the houn.
der it has been observed to travel over
the ridge of the head, while in some
other fish it passes directly through the
soft tissue of the young fish to the other
side.