The Republican., 1890-10-17
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

--Pev. w. II. Murray, missionary al
Picking, has devised system for teach
ing the blind, and has reduced the
Chinese language to 4OS syllables.
In new arc lamp that has lately
appeared hollow carbon is used to form
the arc, and the light is increased by in.
PRODUCING hydro-carbon vapor to the
arc through the bore of the carbon.
Natural gas has become SO scarce at
Pittsburgh that many of the leading
iron works can not run full time, and
the probability is that they will be
obliged to return to the use of coal.
"A Chicago carpet house has applied
electricity to its sewing machines, and
by its use eight yards of carpet can ba
sewn in minute. BY hand only twenty
five yards are sewn in day.
of the 36 iron furnaces now under
construction in the United State 25 are
in the South, being in Virginia, in
Alabama, each in Kentucky and Ten
nessee, 2 in Maryland and l in Georgia.
Baltimore Manufacturers Record.
-Lcuwenhock, by means of micro
scopes, observed spiders no bigger than
a grain of sand, which spun threads so
fine that it took 1000 of them to equal
in magnitude single hair; the fly spi-
der, it is known, lays an egg as large as
itself
The great lace manufacturing con.
cern of Wooten and Mosely, of Noting
ham, England, is to be removed to
Scranton, Pa, where six acres of land
have been given for location. The
plant will be as extensive as that at
Nottingham, which employs 5000 per-
sons.
"A remedy for cholera has been dis
covered by Frenchman from Cette.
People either attacked by or in fear of
the disease must sit for some hours in a
garment soaked in paraffine, which irri-
ritates the skin and produces healthy
reaction and kills the cholera microbe.
In paper read before the Liver
pool Engineering Society, on the crys-
tallization of iron, the author, Morris,
asserts that the we'll known brittleness
so frequently developed in iron is the re-
suit of excess of oxygen during the pud-
ding process; overheating in the mill
and axle forge furnaces; compression, as
in the inside of links of hains, hammer
ing, cold rolled, ETC., and not of vibra-
tion, which is by many engineers and
others put down as the cause of crystal
lization.
The consumption of iron for other
purposes than rails in 1889 was over four
times as great as in 1874, over three
times as great as in 1879, and over twice
as much as in 1882; in the eight years
from 1874 to 1882 the consumption
doubled, and in the seven years from
1882 TO 1889 it doubled again. The census
figures for the production of pig-iron for
the year ending June 80, 1890, indicate
that the year 1890 will show rate of
increase even greater than that of any
preceding period.
1t is stated in regard to the i'm
provement which has been made in
American spun silks and of the printed
silks produced from the same, that the
satin fabrics, printed thus il colors,
have to the eye the same richness Of
effect as if they were made by the more
costly process of jacquard looms. In
Europe printing is done with little
blocks few inches square, which are
slowly and more or less imperfectly
used in hand work. In America ingen-
ious machinery is employed, printing
many colors at once, special steam
engine being employed to drive the ap-
paratus.
Mr.. II. A. Hazen. in ono of an ex-
tended series of articles upon the tor
nado and its accompanying phenomena
(Science, July ny, discusses the possi-
bility of dissipating the energy of the
storm by artificial means. He is of the
opinion that serious damage may be
warded off from town or village by
an extensive forest to the west and
southwest lin the Western United
States). The electrical tension might
also possibly be relieved by properly
arranged network of wires and poles
placed in the direction of usual ap-
proach. "A tornado is exactly the same
as waterspout at sea- and if ships have
broken up such a spout from the con-
cussion produced by the firing of can
non, there seems no reason why the
energy of a tornado may not be largely
diminished by the explosion of gun
powder or dynamite"