The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-09-04
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

DIR. j. Brendon Curgenven has sue
cessfully cured scarlet fever by inunc-
ton of eucalyptus oil, in combination
with other essential oils and campnors.
He tinds.tha this treatment shOrtenS
the duration of the fever and rapidly
DESTROYS the contagious character of the
disease.
"A recent consensus taken of the
opinions of superintendent of several
large shops is to the effect that there is
no end to the want of first-claSs me-
chanics who can understand and work
from simple mechanical drawings. The
compound school and shop-bred me-
chanic is rapidly leading the field
The railroads il Australia are all
built by the government. Their cost at
first-about thirty years ago-was $780,
0O0 per mile for double line exclusive
of rolling stock. At a later period single
line roads were built for $4,000. and
still later, down to the present time,
for $50, 900 a mile. The standard gauge
is feet, inches.
A prominent lumberman of Seattle
says that timber in the northwest is
hardly considered merchantable if it
goes under $4,000 feet to the acre, while
it is a very common occurrence to find
tim Der that will go 1G0, 900 feet to the
acre. He recounts sale of Il forty
acre tract of timber that went 800, 900
feet to the acre.-Cincinnati CONNER
cial Gazette.
The addition of aluminium to mott
en- steel before pouring an ingot has
been found to render the metal per-
fectly sound when cast. The action
seems to be entirely chemical, end is
about twenty times more powerful
than that of silicon. The amount used
is from four to eight ounces ton, and
when used manganese can be dispensed
with.
The amount of phosphorus consumed
per annum is about two thousand tons,
and is chiefly used in match making.
Hitherto chemicals We're used in its man.
ufacture, but by recent improvement
the raw material and coke are placed in
specially-prepared furnace and cleo
trio heat is applied. The vapor arising
is condensed, and marketable phos-
phorus is produced.
Hail storms do not occur in we'll
wooded districts, according to the OBJ
servations of noted Swiss forester
In evidence of this he points out that
district formerly exempt from such
storms has been visited by very fierce
ones since gaps were made in the for
ests, and that upon replanting the
cleared ground with frs the storms
ceased entirely.
The water of Niagara furnishes
power at a cost of five dollars per horse
power per year for twcnty-four hour
daily run. This is through turbines
under sixty-foot head. The new plan
Of utilization will give head of one
hundred and twenty feet and produce
total power of 100000 horse, equal to
the aggregate of the fourteen most prom
inent water-power centers in the coun-
try.
Waste sawdust and shavings are
being utilized by Mons. Claimant of
Paris, France, for the production of fine
vegetable charcoal, which is intended
to be used for the removal OF the I'M
pleasant flavor in the common French
wines, and as a tlltering medium in dis
tilleries, where it is said to be capable
Of tiltering forty times its volume of
alcohol, whereas the ordinary vegetable
charcoal of commerce filters less and
costs very much more.
"A commercial company has for
some time been working quarries m
the neighborhood of the well-lnown
glacial grooves at Kelley Island,
Ohio, and it was feared that these
remarkable relics of the glacial epoch
might be wholly destroyed. For
tunately the president of the company
understands the interest of the phe-
nomena, and has taken care to prevent
the most striking of them from being
injured. Some of the grooves have
now been rendered safe, the company,
at its recent annual meeting, having de-
cided that the rocks on which they are
furrowed should be made over to the
president, by whom they will be trans
ferrcd to a scientific or historical so
ciety, "to be preserved in perpetuity for
the benefit of science