The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1889-07-04
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

-Fifty million dollars are said to be
invested in the natural gas industry Of
Ponnsylvania
--Dynamos especially adapted for
ships use have appeared in answer 70
~ oft-repeated demand.
1T has been proved that in hot clt-
mates the preparation of wood with
sulphate of copper or with creosote
adds little to its durability.
In recent years it has been claimed
by chemists that the changes attending
the dissolution of metals in acids are
only in part electrical and in part
chemical.
The vintage of 1888 in all the wine
countries sums up the enormous total
of 3,Ol0,751, 1852 gallons. As wine
producer, Italy comes first and France
next.
"A process of lettering bone or
ivory. by sinking the letters into the
material in a permanent fashion, has
recently been introduced. These ivory
plates are taking the place of engraved
metal plates for signs, checks, badges
and so on. Electrical engineers have
also adopted the new plates, which can
likewise be applied to organs and
piano fortes.
Sir John Lubbock has demon
strated the curious fact that certain
kinds of ants are unable to exist with
out keeping other ants as slaves, though
why this is 50 he has not found out. On
removing the slaves from a nestof fifty
slave holding ants he found that the
latter Immediately began to die off, and
were speedily reduced in number to six.
When the slaves were returned the
mortality ceased.
M. Cornu, a French scientist, re.
Gently expressed the opinion in the
Academy OF Sciences that tho light
emitted by shooting stars is not due to
conflagration or the heat of impact. In
those high regions. he said, our
atmosphere is too unsubstantial to
render the explanation satisfactory. It
is much more probable that the phe-
nomenon is one of static electricity de-
veloped by simple friction, and it is
we'll known that raretied gases can be
made to glow intensely with but very
little electric fluid.
The number of Touring mills in En-
gland is estimated at about 1000, with
a total capacity of, little more than
81, 600, 900 barrels per annum. This is
one-fourth larger than the require
ments of the country. The mills could
not be run to more than eighty per
cent. of their capacity if no flour was
imported. But large quantities are
received from the United States and
some from Hungary, and the produc.
ton of the home mills is not much more
than half of what it would be if there
were no competition from abroad.
What are known by the name oil
iron bricks have been satisfactorily in
troduced as paving material in some
parts of Germany. These bricks are
made by mixing equal parts of finely
ground red argillaceous slate and finely
ground clay, with the addition of five
per cent. of iron ore. The ingredients
thus mixed together are then mois.
tened with a solution Of twenty-five per
cent. of sulphate of iron, to which fine
iron ore is added, until the mass shows
a consistency of thirty-eight degrees
Baume. After this, the compound is
shaped in press, dried, dipped once
more in nearly concentrated solution
of finely ground iron ore, and then
baked in an oven for about forty Eight
hours, in a reducing flame.