The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-08-01
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

"A new utilization of waste product
is the making of valuable paste, an
effective substitute for gum arabic,
from the straw boilings that accumulate
in the manufacture of paper.
Stanley says the director of Dutch
house recently told him that his firm
now has thirty steamers on the Upper
Congo, and that their house had bought
81, 500, 900 of ivory in the last two years.
"A new piston has been contrived for
single-acting vertical engines, having
for its object the ready removal of the
fluid which condenses in the cylinders.
The top of the piston has an inclined
surface, so that the parts at the exhaust
port are lowest, and the fluid collecting
On the top Of the piston is carried down
ward and blown out when the exhaust
port opens.
The scoring of the bores of modern
cannon by the new powders in use is
claimed to be due to the fact that upon
ignition all of the powder is not turned
to gas, some of it remaining in a fluid
state. 1t is this latter which does the
scoring, by being thrown with such
force against the metal of the gun that
the resulting action is very similar to
that of sand blast for cutting glass.
In report on the Kolar gold field
of Southern India, Mr.. B. Smith men,
tions the finding of interesting remains
of ancient mining, such as old timber
ing, fragments of bones, an oil lamp and
pieces of earthenware. The fact that the
old miners, with their simple appli-
through hard rock, astonishes him.
-Alocomotive working under pres
sure of 14O to 165 pounds to the square
inch may move a railway train at We
locity of sixty miles per hour, which we
are apt to think of as wonderful speed.
But it is slow compared with the rate of
motion of the projectile from a modern
great gun. Such projectile flies at the
rate of ,S65 miles per hour, impelled by
a pressure of 35, 900 to 40, 900 pounds per
square inch.-ScientifcA American.
-Schiaparelli has just published an
elaborate and interesting paper upon
the planet Mercury, in which he brings
out the remarkable and unexpected re-
suit that this planet in its axial rotation
initiates the moon, keeping the same
face always toward the sun, and having
its day" equal to the period of it's Or
bital revolution (about lightweight ter
restrial days. While there may be
some hesitation in accepting this con-
clusion as fully established, it is I'M
questionably made extremely probable
by the numerous observations upon
which Schiaparelli bases it.-N. Y. In
dependent.
In a paper on "Clothing," Mr.
Francis Vacher insists, as a primary
consideration, on the Importance of
wearing clean, porous and warm woollen
clothing; condemns aniline and other
injurious dyes; exposes the evils of
scanty clothing, unequal pressure,
heavy, superfuous ornaments, ill
adjusted corsets, and high-heeled boots;
discriminates between the different
styles of children's clothing, and pro-
nounces the morning suit and under
wear OF men nearly perfect.
"A civil engineer of st. Petersburg is
said to have produced from peat coal
greatly resembling anthracite. He ac-
complishes this by the use of certain
chemicals. Government experiments
with the new fuel are reported to have
been very satisfactory, the heat OBJ
tanned being little less than that from
ordinary coal, but greater than that
from the wood of the fir or birch, which
is largely used in Russia. The peat is
superior to coal in cheapness, in free
dom from dust, and in lack of disagreea-
BILE odor in burning. -Arkansaw Tray
alnr