The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-01-22
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Several calculating machines received
the gold medal at the Paris Exposition.
It is proposed to light up horses heads
with electric light during fogs in Lon
don.
The discovery on Fiji plantation Of
an antidotc to the banana disease, will, it
is expected, prove most valuable in all
/ tropical countries.
The result of the examination of 5000
school children in various cities of Amer
lea and Europe is that the average of
pupils who have defective hearing is
twcnty-six per cent.
In little town of Schleswig- Holstein
there is tax exemption for dogs "that
sleep with their masters and mistresses
and so preserve them from gout, rheuma-
tism and like palms.
It is proposed determining air tempera-
lures at great heights by using thermome-
ters which, by closure of an electric cur
rent when certain temperatures are
reached, give a light signal. Small bal
looms containing these thermometers are
TO be sent up at night.
mortar which, it is claimed will
stand in all sorts of weather, is made of
one bushel of unslacked lime and three
bushels of sharp sand, to which is added
one pound of alum mixed with one pint
of linseed oil. The alum will counteract
the action Of frost ON the mortar.
A remarkable chemical test for Asiatic
cholera has been suggested to an Italian
medical journal by NJ Buiwid. Hydro
chloric acid added to a culture broth
containing the cholera microbes is as
serted to give a violet color, which does
not appear unless these particular germs
are present.
The Swedish Count, NJ. Bjornstjena,
suggested more than forty years ago, in a
book on "Thc Theogony of the Hindoos,
that, as both poles must have been cooled
to suitable temperature at the same
time. tho earth might have been peopled
from the north pole with its white races,
and from the south pole with its colored
races.
The ancient copper mines on Lake Su-
perior are stated by Professor Ncwberry
to have been abandoned not less than
four hundred years ago, as is proven by
the growth of forest trees over the rub
bish heaps; and the old mica mines
of North Carolina and the serpentine
quarnes of the Alleghanies show like
evidences of antiquity.
During the past year no ashes have
been thrown up by Nesuvius, and conse-
quently the surrounding crops were not
destroyed. The sublimations of the
smoke issues were relatively scarce. On
various occasions the detonations and the
red-hot projectiles thrown up with the
large quantities of smoke indicated
greater eruptive power
After three years of the incandescent
light in the house of gentleman in Eng
land, in which was collection of fine
water colors, he finds that some of the
more delicate pigments have begun to
fade. The arc light has been found far
richer in artinic rays than the incandes-
cent. Magnesium light approaches near
est to that of the sun in the proportion
of colored rays.
The use of luminous paint is rapidly
growing in this country. England has
heretofore had the monopoly of lumin-
Gus paint which it has sold at SO per
pound Other countries, however, have
entered into the competition, and Austria
is now producing a paint which is placed
ON the market at fifty cents per pound.
1t is said to be made from roasted oyster
shells and sulphur.
\ curious watch has been brought out
in France. The dial is transparent, but
there are no works behind it, and the
hands appear to move by magic. The
secret lies in concealing the works at the
edge of the case and communicating the
motion to the hands by means of glass
disc, which acts as Il toothed wheel. This
disc revolves between the front and back
of the dial, which are both of glass, and
hence its motion is unperceived.