The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-11-16
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

When girl falls in love she stops
saying her prayers. but after she is
married she begins them again.
American Globe.
The newly invented apparatus for
feeding the fires Of electric-light plants
does away entirely with the necessity
of handling coal after it has been
dumped in the fuel room.
The manufacture of luminous paint
has been begun in Austria on large
scale, at about sixth of the cost hith-
erto. A special paper is supplied for
use when the paint is applied to walls.
-Brannerite is the name of a new
mineral recently discovered in the
northern part of Arkansas by Prof. w.
Albert Chaplain, of Lead Hill, and
named in honor of Prof. John c. Bran
ner. the Arkansas State Geologist.
1t is reported from Birmingham,
Ala. that a Scotch chemist named
Archibald has discovered u process by
which all phosphorus may be removed
f,o2Ce, sgca-and the ore .cGsGs&ee.rted into
Bessemer pig at a cost of only fifty
cents ton. The process is said to
have been successfully tested.
Recent Investigations in French
medical institute show that death from
hydrophobia is the result of brain and
spinal Inflammation rather than blood
poisoning. Hydrophobia could not be
caused by incubation of the blood, but
followed from incubation of the nerve
tissue, as was shown by experiment.
"A peculiar industry has sprung up
near Albany, N. Y, since 1SS3-that
of supplying crushed stone for asphalt
and macadamized roads. The quarry
from which the stone is taken is oper-
ated night and day. One thousand tons
of rock a day are crushed, and $50 cars
are used in transporting the fragments
OF rock to all parts of the country.
"A young German student of Assy-
riology has been experimenting with
soft tiles and stylus, and concludes
that the Assyrians wrote their cuniform
lines with a cube-shaped instrument
having a pointed end, which was made
of wood, not metal. He processes to
find it very easy TO write cuniform as
rapidly as German with such a stylus.
A Russian engineer has invented a
device for utilizing the power of rum
ming streams. His apparatus consists
of an endless cable, carrying q series
of canvas cones, which open and shut
like an umbrella. The cable passes
over a double drum on board a pom
toon, and at the other end over pull
ley suspended from a buoy. On the
lower part OF the rope the cones are
opened and forced forward by the cur
rent of water, thus setting in motion a
shaft or drum.
"A wonderful revolution in flour
barrel making is promised by patent
which has been granted for the making
of barrels out of cotton duck instead of
wood. The new material is impervious
to water and resists fire for a long time.
II weighs to the barrel about fifteen
POUNDS less than the wood, and can be
manufactured ten per cent. cheaper.
The cotton duck barrel can be rolled up
into small space and returned to the
mills for frequent use.
Most railroads in this country when
renewing their rails order heavier ones
than have previously been used ON
their tracks. A better road bed and
heavier rails are required for increas-
ing traffic, heavier locomotives and
greater speed. A short time ago the
standard weight of rails was ffty-six
pounds per yard, requiring eighty
eight tons per mile of single track As
a sixty-fve pound rail takes a little
over one hundred tons per mile of
single track, although only nine pounds
per yard heavier than a fifty-six pound
rail, it is easy to see that the tonnage
of rails manufactured during the year
is steadily increasing to an enormous
extent.