The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1891-03-04
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Electricity has been put to driving
drills.
II costs sixty-four cents to run q train
a mile in England.
Wo0den-spoon making is an extensive
industry ir Russia, about 80, 600, 000, 900
being the annual product.
Electricity has just been applied to the
reeling, weighing aud making up into
balls of silk and similar woven fabrics.
Iron bolts exposed to water in the
bridges over the Thames in England,
have in twenty-five years been eaten
away one-half.
Silk from paper pulp is made smooth
and brilliant, has about the same elastic
ity as ordinary silk, and is about two
thirds as strong.
Japan is about to enter the field as a
producer Of indigo. The soil and elm
ate of parts of the island are stated to be
favorable to the cultivation of the
shrub.
An Austrian has invented an instru-
ment resembling a piano in appearance,
which contains six v%iolins, two v%oilas,
and two violoncellos, and is manipulated
by a keyboard.
A machine, said to be a marvel of
lightness and ingenuity, has recently
been built in Australia for experiments
in fly ing through the air. 1t is propelled
by an engine fed with compressed air.
The group of bodies termed by chem
lists the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. they are
composed of carbon united with oxygen
and hydrogen in the proportion in which
those two elements combine to form
water-contain the we'll known series of
sugars, gums and starches.
A9.2-inch armor- piercing shell, manu-
featured by the British firm of Thomas
Firth & Sons, was recently subjected to
being fired at a fo~urtcen-inch compound
plate. The projectile passed clean
through the plate. Further tests with
this shell will soon be made.
AT a test of steel manufactured at
Reading, Penn, the other day, a one
inch bar broke at a strain of 233, 1873
pounds, ''being about 20, 900 pounds in
excess of the highest record authoritavely
known" The test was made under the
supervision of Government officers.
At the Pechiney Works, at Salindres,
France, caustic soda is now prepared for
the market in leaves or flakes. This is
effected by allowing the hot supersatu-
rated liquor to flow from a funnel be-
tween hollow rollers, which latter are
kept cool down to a low point by the
circulation of cold water within them.
Clay which is pure white, and that
also which is discolored, and has been
washed to bring it to a uniform shade of
color, is used by the manufacturers of
paper haugings to give the smooth satin
surface to the finished paper. 1t is used
by mixing it up with a thin size, apply
ing it to the surface of the pieces of
paper, and then polishing it by means of
brushes driven by machinery.
Recent investigations by Professor
Geddes, of Edinburgh, Scotland, have
led him to reject the commonly accepted
views of the origin of thorns. He has
found that there is a more or less devel-
oped general contrast in vegetative habit
between thornless and thorny varieties.
The thorny varieties or species show a
more diminishing vegetativeness than
their thornless congeners; in fact, they
frequently develop their thorns by the
actual death of their germ points.
The cutting of veneers isnow done by
electricity. The veueering machine, in-
stead of cutting or shaving around the
entire circumference of the log, as usual,
takes a thin slice from the fiat side of it,
The logs are of any diameter, and are
cut into lengths of ten feet. The veneer
ing cutting knife is fixed between two
parallel shafts, and the log is carried up
and down in front of it with a circular
motion by revolving cranks, and is fed
against the knife by a retchet and pawl,
to the ordinary manner