The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1890-02-01
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCueNC6 AMI iNOOSsn'
-Ramie is an excellent fiber, better,
stronger and finer than cotton or wool,
and almost equal to silk in luster.
--"Anti-squeak," is the stuff they
now nut in shoes. It looks like shoddy,
but is more costly than leather.
The stone quarries Of Europe em-
ploy at least 500, 900 workmen, and pro-
duce an annual value OF not less than
800, 000, 900.
Massachusetts, factory laws are be-
ing enforced; children are not allowed
10 clean the machines, and girls must DO
.up their hair to avoid being scalped.
A Connecticut Yankee has con-
ceived the idea of making new shoes Oh
old ones. They are not made to wear
but 70 sell, and are sent out West. In
every city of the country his agents
purchase old shoes.
The lamp experimental with IN
France, to be used on the battief1eid 70
search for the killed and wounded, Is
about the size Of locomotive headlight.
It has powerful reflector, and the light
| is produced by the combustion OF TWO
magnesium wires.
From so, 900 analyses in German
laboratory it appears that fluctuations
in the solids Of milk depend almost en-
tfrely ON variations Of the fat. The even
ing milk is richer than that OF the morn
ing, and the November and December
milk than that of other months.
There has lately been perfected
process. by German chemist, whereby
any soft or porous wood can be MADE as
hard as lignum vitae, and serve the same
purposes. 1t is done by forcing Oil into
the pores of the soft wood, and then sub
iecting it to intense pressure.
] An English navigator at Santander,
ON the north coast Of Spain, has found
she sea waves in prolonged and heavy
rale of wind to be AZ feet high and $50
feet long. Other estimates OF storm
waves in the South Atlantic give height
OF so feet and length of 400 feet. In
the North Sea the height of crest seldom
exceeds 10 feet and the length $50 feet.
A new substitute for tobacco IS
being introduced. 1t is q mixture OF
British herbs-the particular plants are
kept secret and smokers who have
| tried the compound declare it to be de-
liciously fragrant, slightly exhilarating
! and withal soothing to the nerves Com
bined with ordinary tobacco it is said tc
make blend as satisfactory as that Of
, chicory with coffee, but such blend II
, illegal md punishable by very heavy
fines. At present it is prepared in Scot
land under the name of ''herb tobacco,
, and 1t has rapidly grown in favor.
!. Some interesting notes on human
skulls, found in an old monastery in thu
|, Keadron Valley, near Jerusalem, have
!. been given by DIR. Dwight in medica
journal. He concludes that the eau
I. casian skull has, during the past thir
: teen centuries, increased two inches Il
!. average circumference, and gained
: brain-holding capacity Of three and
!, half cubic inches. The growth has bee
: wholly in the frontal and upper region
and none at all in the lower portion
!. associated with purely animal functions
!. This is the most important discovery l
\ ethnology Of recent date.-St. LOU
: Globe Democrat.
!. During his recent residence in Tor
!, ouin, M. A. Yvert successfully employe
!. bichloride Of mercury for the cure
: cholera, in doses varying from 0.0s
0.O4 grain in twenty-four hours. I
forty-dve patients SO treated, nine onl
succumbed, or about twenty per hui
" dred, the normal rate in that region,
in Europe, being sixty-six per hundre'
h 1t was also administered to convale
. cents in districts where the epidem
s. had again broken out and had alread
u made one victim. None Of those WI
e. took this preventive medicine were
ID lacked.