The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-05-08
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


slate quarries in the United States, Ona
in Vermont and the other in Virginia
AT least !, 800, 900 men are employed
in the coal mines of the world. En-
gland has 535, 900: Unitcd'States, 500 600;
Germany, 2S5,OO0; Belbium, 100000;
France, 100000 Austria, 1OO,0 900: Russia,
A, 900. The worlds miners of metal
number 4, 600, 900.
-Thre, new phosphate companies
have recently been organized to develop
and work the phosphate beds in Florida.
The capital stock of these companies
aggregates over 81, 100000. Many plants
are now in operation and will turn out
100000 tons, nearly one-fourth of the
worlds product.-N. Y. Globe.
The influence of food upon the rate
of formation of carbonic acid has been
made matter of study in France, and
1t has been found out that during the
first hour after a meal the quantity of
carbonic acid exhaled increases till it
reaches a maximum, three or four hours
after the meal, when it falls off again.
Plenty of fresh air is desirable from one
to three hours after a meal.
1t is curious fact that water pipes
under ground will often freeze during
the warm spell that follows a cold snap.
The explanation made for this interest
ing phenomenon is that after cold
wave large quantity of heat is taken
from the ground in the work of chang
ing the frozen moisture into water, and
thus on the principle of the ice cream
freezer, the pipe Is chilled, enough heat
being taken from it to freeze it.
More than eighteen months ago the
death was chronicled of Laura Bridg-
man, the wonderful blind deaf mute,
whose home had for years been the
| Perkins asylum in Boston. An autopsy
was performed upon the body. and now.
after months of treatmknt, the brain
has been dissected and examined, and
found to vary little in weight and size
from that of the average woman, the
chief perceptible difference appearing
in the unequal development of certain
portions.
Some writers in one or two of the
English papers have been again point
ing out the fallacy of the very common
idea that melted snow is an ideally pure
water. The reverse of this is true So
lar from being pure, snow is, practic-
ally, great purifier of the atmosphere
from floating particles and nOXious
| gases These the flakes of snow impriS-
on or absorb as they fall, and, as a
matter of course, when the snow mclts
it is load ed with this rubbish.
The speed with which the bodies
known as mcteors enter and pass
| fh,-a,,or1 I,o NJ, &c, in,
excess of that of Il cannon ball that
there is no comparison between the two
bodies. A piece of iron may be heated
by pounding it on an anvil, and the at
mosphere acts like an anvil to the extra
terrestrial bodies which enter it. 1t can
be shown by mathematical calcula-
ton that the speed of the mcteOrite and
the resistance of the atmosphere are
sufficient to produce the degree of heat
observed.
-Taclls and nails were made in
America in 17775, and the first patent for
a nail machine was granted in 1894. The
nail industry to-day figures high in our
national industries, the total production
of cut nails alone in the United States
in 1890 being $50, 75S kegs; in 1883 it
was 6,493, 591 kegs in 1887 it was $685.
$40 ana in 1856, S,160,973, the highest
figure yet reached. The introduction of
the wire nail industry accounts in some
measure for the decrease in cut nails,
the American production in 1899 being
1900, 900 kegs, as against the output in
1856 Of but 600, 900 kegs.-Age of Steel.
The detailed figures of pig-iron, fin
ished iron and steel output in France
during 1890 have just been published,
says the Ironmonger. They show that
last years production of pig-iron at
tanned the total OF $40, 100 tons-an in
crease of 247,7S0 tons upon 1889, and
within 100, 900 tons of the maximum of
1883. The total output of finished iron
was 1923, 800 tons, which is $4,000 tons
above the preceding years total, but no
less than $50, 900 tons below the maxi
mum of 1892. On the other hand, the
output of steel was the largest ever at
tanned. The total, 5G6, 1877 tons, exceeds
that of 1889 by $1,000 tons, and that OF
1883 by nearly $4,000 tons.
Il am confident" writes DIR. Prime
from Florida to the New York Journal
of Commerce, that there is much
more numerous insect life in northern
New England in June and July than in
any tropical country Our northern for
ests and fields abound, day and night,
in winged and wingless insects of count
less variety and numbers. Mosquitoes,
black flies and gnatS are more of pest
in the north than | have ever found in
the tropics. An accomplished eutomolo-
gist, who has resided six years in Flor
ida and several years before that in Can
ada, told me few days ago that his OBJ
servation fully accorded with mine, and
that he had found insect life much more
plenti full in Canada than in Florida"
TOO POLITE.