The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1890-05-24
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


"A medicament more powerful than
quinine in counteracting fevers is said
10 have been discovered in Mexico. 1t
Is plant called the pompolano, the root
Of which contains substance analogous
to quinine.
Over $50, ,0OO,O 900 new capital has
been invested in the electrical industry
In this country during the past year,
and in England, during one week,
twenty-one electrical companies were
organized. This shows how rapidly the
Industry is growing. Electrical Re.
view.
Different classes of substances have
been found to affect the organs OF taste
In the following order: Bitters, acids,
saline substances, sweets and alkalies.
The taste-nerves are nearly 1000 times
as sensitive to quinine as to sugar
The production of olives for home
use and export is increasing in Cali
fornia, both for the production of oil
and picked olives. A test of numerous
varieties of the olive is being conducted
at the four California stations. Several
varieties that have already been tried
promise to be much superior to those
now grown.
A noted French inventor has pat
ented a process for manufacturing
alloys of steel and copper. The product
is said to possess superior qualities Of
elasticity, strength and malleab!lity to
q remarkable extent. The steels alloyed
are especially useful in the manufac-
ture of ordnance, armor-plates, gun
barrels and proiectiles.
Experiments as to within what
limits the ear can distinguish the diff
ference in the pitch of two sounds show
that the smallest difference perceptible
by unframed or slightly trained ears
seems to be from one-sixth to one
fortieth of a semitone. A beculiarity
that appears to apply alike to trained
and unframed ears is that they detect
upward differences more easily than
downward.
The abundance of remains of the
mammoth in Siberia is almost incredi-
BILE. Middendorff reckoned that at least
100 pairs of tusks had been put upon the
market yearly during the last two cen.
turtles, and from personal observation
Nordenskiold is inclined to regard this
estimate as too small. 1t thus appears
that in the recent modern trade useful
tusks of more than 10000 of these ami.
mails of past ages have been collected.
"A number of merchants, especially
those interested in textile goods manu-.
tsDture, propose to begin an agitation
tx. favor of broad and comprehensive
system of industrial schools, first in New
York City and then elsewhere. The
movement has its origin in conviction
that, unless American youth are drilled
thoroughly in the rudiments and the
higher development of textile manu-
facture, this entire department of indus
try will before long pass absolutely into
the hands of an undesirable class OF
foreign-born and foreignbred workmen.
The London Lancet has added an.
other terror to existence. According to
that paper the frequency with which the
contagion of parasitic sycosis has been
traced to its source in n barber's shop
has become almost characteristic of the
disease. In other words, there is not
death, perhaps, but certainly the risk
of tubercular eruption in the shaving
pot, and it seems that any modern
Figaro VINO Tor the shaving oil his Gus
toners uses unclean brushes or COM
mon soap supply not improbably assists
in the transference of the infectious
germs.
The substitution of steam for COM
pressed air in gun intended to throw
shells containing dynamite or other
high explosives is proposed in France,
the advantages claimed being the fur
nishing of power direct from the boiler,
without the use of air-compressing
machinery. The pressures usually car
ried in steam boilers would not be suf.
ficient for this purpose, but boilers are
promised of a special type, which will
supply steam at pressure of from six
hundred to eight hundred pounds, and
which will at the same time, be safe
and easily handled.