The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-02-08
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The mineral called turfa, or brazo-
lima, lately discovered in Bahia, fur
nishes an oil akin to petroleum, a para
fine suitable for the manufacture Of
candles, and good lubricating oil.
Science shows that the cranberry
contains less than two-tenths of one per
cent. of inorganic matter as derived
from the soil, all the rest being derived
from air and water.
To place telephone wires under
ground and maintain the same efficiency
as in overhead lines would require an
insulation on each wire of over two
feet in thickness. Instead of getting
fifty pairs of wires into a three-inch
pipe, as at present, tunnel occupying
half the street would be required for one
cable alone.
An examination of over nine thou
sand pupils of the schools of New York,
Stuttgart, Bordeaux, Munich and Glas-
gov has shown that more than twenty
six per cent. have defective hearing, and
that there are twice as many so affected
among the backward children as among
the forward.
II Nc utW dEUl1Cldl S1lh lHdOlO VI wv
ton or the sulphited pulp of young wood
treated with nitric acid, and then dis
solved in mixture of ether and alcohol,
is said to have density, breaking
strength, and elasticity that compares
very favorably with natural silk, while
surprising it in luster.
The manufacture of paper by steam
machinery in India is growing yearly in
extent and Importance. The materials
used are wheat and rice straw, rags,
various kinds of grasses, old jute, hemp.
rope or bagging, wood-pulp and waste
paper, and the products consist of brown
and white cartridges, writing, blotting,
foolscap and colored coarse papers.
The latest improvement in the man
ufacture of filaments for incandescent
lamps consists in heating them to high
temperature by burning fluid fuel in a
suitable furnace, and at the conclusion
of the operation raising the tempera-
ture to still higher degree for a short
period by the introduction of blast Of
oxygen.
1t is said to have been demonstrated
that the cotton stalk, which has hither-
to been regarded as waste; contains val
liable fiber. A lot of the stalks were re.
Gently sent from Arkansas to factory
in New York to be operated on in the
same manner as fax and hemp. There
were returned about twenty different
grades of fbrous material, from coarse
strands of the stalk to the glossy fiber
as soft as silk. Persons are now engaged
in perfecting machine that will spin
the material. The fiber is sufficiently
strong to make the best of bagging, as
we'll as cloth as fine as linen.
AT the last meeting of the French
Academy of Science, M. Paul Gibier gave
an account of his recent researches re-
garding the resistance to the action Of
| cold on trichin8 contained in meats.
| The substances on which his re-
searches were carried out were hams
sailed with a mixture of marine salt and
saltpeter. The trachin9 which were
found in them did not resist the action
of temperature of few degrees under
freezing point, maintained for nearly an
hour. The case is different, however,
when the meat is not sailed, as then a
temperature of twenty-five degrees be-
low the freezing point continued even
for two hours, is sufficient to render
fresh meats containing trichine sweet.