Nevada County picayune., 1890-02-26
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Louisiana is becoming a very im- portant sugar and lumber State.
 The boy bakers in San Francisco's industrial school make bread for all the public institutions.
 A meteorological station is to be es- tablished at Tiberias, Palestine, which is 6s2 feet below the level of the Medit- erranean.
 M. Beauregard, an eminent Egypt ologist, believes that Egypt at the time of the pharaohs exhibited the mixed con- dition of combining the use of flint i'm plements with acquaintance with the means of extracting copper and blend ing it with other metal.
 A new textile material, called yege- table flannel, isnow being manufactured in Germany, out of pine leaves. The fiber. somewhat resembling hemp, is spun. knitted and woven into under garments, blankets and clothing of various kinds. This fabric is said to keep the body warm without heating, and is exceedingly cheap and durable.
 In observations with kites and bal looms. Prof. Leonhard Weber has found that the atmosphere is negatively elec- trified ID to a height of about one hun- dred yards, beyond which itis positively electrified in a degree increasing very rapidly with the distance from the earth. The negative electrifcation of the lower strata of the air is attributed to the presence of germs and dust particles.
 Tue authorities say that the dura. tion of lightning fash is not infinitesi- nal, but that the flash lasts measura- ble time. For example, if one sets a camera in rapid vibration and exposes in 1t plate so as to receive the impress sion of the fash, it is found that the inn pressions appear widened out on the negative. showing the negative to have moved during the time the flash was in existence.
 -'I notice, said a prominent brick maker to a Detroit Free Press reporter, that there is now being introduced into this country the famous Swiss patent for making iron-elad brick" "Iron-clad brick?" "Yes. sir That is to say. the clay is mixed with certain amount of iron ore and burned under certain re- quiremcnts of temperature, in a pecu. liarly made kiln. etc. The result is something startling. Such brick are un- surpassed even by stone itself. For pay ing they are simply unapproachable. hope to see our Detroit manufacturer: take hold of this thing"
 One of the industries now followed in London and certainly novel and re- markable one, even for this age, is that of separating and storing oxygen from the atmosphere. This interesting pro cess has unique application in the ma turing of spirits and in improving the quality of beer, and, though this is far from being the only application which is made of pure oxygen, it is one which, for various reasons. has excited most at tention, especially in that department of trade, on account of it's financial bear ings. It is claimed that the oxygen, in it's contact with spirits, actually accom- plishes in few days what, if left to the natural and usual process, requires a period of from three to five years. The oxygen. t is said. gets rid of the fusel oil quickly, thus relieving the liquid of it's most injurious property, and not only this, but maturer effect is also pro- duced on beer by admixture with oxy- rcu