The Republican., 1891-03-20
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

II
world has, it is alleged, been discovered
near Durango, Mexico.
The factories of England. France,
Germany and Holland, produce about
81, 900, 900 pins daily.
-Stenographers and tvpewrlters can
be had in New York in lunches at four
dollars week. Cooks at thirty dollars
month cannot be found to supply the
demand.
An English bacteriologist. who is
notable as the discoverer of taxalbumens
and who is now studying the Koch
method at the Hygienic institute, Ber-
lin, announces that he has discovered q
remedy for anthrax.
Babies and young children dressed
in white are thought by medical men to
be more susceptible to colds and infec-
tious diseases than those clad in dark,
warm colorS.
The principle of the compressed
paper car wheels, which are so widely
used throughout the world, IS applied in
France to the manufacture of pulleys
for power transmission. The pulleys
are said to be very light, cheap and
serviceable in every respect
1t was found from careful germina-
ton tests at the Wisconsin station that
the hulled grains of timothy seed
neither germinate so well nor retain
their vitality SO long as those not
hulled; also that timothy seed, when
properly stored, is fairly reliable up to
five years old.
Petroleum was discovered near the
surface at Lafayette, La, recently,
Drilling was commenced at once in the
hope OF tapping a reservoir of the fluid
At depth of fifty feet bed of solid
coal of fine quality was struck. The oil,
which tests fifty-eight per cent. pure
kerosene and small per cent. of lubri-
eating oil, naphtha and vaseline has so
far appeared only in limited quantities.
The pitting of smallpox has been
entirely prevented by Dr. Lewintaner,
of Constantinople, by antiseptic treat
ment, as follows: The entire head and
face, except the eyes and the neck, are
covered with plaster consisting of three
parts of carbolic acid and fifty parts
each of olive oil and starch. The body
is covered over with mixture of three
parts of salicylic acid, thirty parts
starch, and seventy parts olive oil. The
internal treatment consists in giving
quinine in acid solution.
Some recent statistics show that
very rapid increase is being made in
vine culture in this country. There are
now under vine culture in America 400,-
900 acres, of which about 3O0,O0 acres
are bearing. The estimated value of the
vineyards and wine cellars is $155,000,-
600. In California there are 10000
acres under vine culture, and large
proportion of the grapes produced is
made into wine. Most of the grapes
grown in New York state are sold for
food. The total production of wine in
the United States during the past year
is about 1000, 900 gallons.
1t has been determined that the re-
sistance of the air to bullet three
quarters of an inch in diameter, weigh
ing one-twelfth of a pound, is about 10
pounds, or 1870 times the weight of bull
let at a velocity of about 1000 feet per
second. On the principle of mechanical
similitude it has been shown that "a
pound cannon ball fred with charge
of 16 pounds of powder should acquire
velocity of l $50 foot-seconds, and that
the resistance of the air would then
amount to $40 pounds, or nearly % times
the weight of the shot.
Experiments recently made in Ger
many have added convincing evidence
to a fact already noted, to wit, the va
riability of terrestrial latitudes, for ex-
ample. the latitudes of Berlin. Potsdam
and Prague, diminished between Au-
gust, 1889, and February, 1890, about
half a second of arc. In the latter year.
between April and August, the latitude
of Berlin increased four-tenths of sec
ond. In other words, Berlin is nearer
the North Pole in summer than in win
ter. The periodicity of these variations
would indicate that the direction of the
earths axis, under the influence of some
external or internal disturbance, was
changing. This phenomenon is attract
ing very general attention.