The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1891-07-11
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


1T is said there are only two red |
slate quarries in the United States, one
in Vermont and the other in Virginia
AT least l. SOL, 900 men are employed
in the coal mines of the world En-
gland has 535, 900; United'States, s00,0 900; |
Germany, 2S5,O00; Belbium, 100000; |
France, 90, 900; Austria, 100000; Russia, |
1900. The worlds miners OF metal |
number 100000.
Three new phosphate companies
have recently been organized to develop
and work the phosphate beds in Florida
The capital stock of these companies
aggregates over $4,000, 900. 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
| it has been found out that during the
first hour after meal the quantity OF
carbonic acid exhaled increases till it
| reaches 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 a curious fact that water pipes
| under ground will often freeze during
| the warm spell that follows 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 treatment, 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
far 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 melts
it is load ed with this rubbish.
The speed with which the bodies
known as meteors enter and pass
/ through the atmosphere is so much in
excess of that of a 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 meteorite and
: the resistance of the atmosphere are
: sufficient to produce the degree OF heat
} observed.
-Tacks and nails were made in
America in 1775, and the first patent fol
nail machine was granted in 1874. The
| nail industry to-day figures high in oul
national industries, the total production
; of cut nails alone in the United State!
in 1890 being $50, 1853 kegs; in 1883 i
/? was 6, 493, 591 kegs; in 1887 it was zoos,
r $40 and in 1886, s, 100, 973, the highes
q figure yet reached. The introduction o
the wire nail industry accounts in som'
!. | measure for the decrease in cut nails
: the American production in 1889 being
I 1900, 900 kegs, as against the output il
1886 of but 600, 900 kegs-Age OF Steel
d The detailed figures of pig-iron. fin
ished iron and steel output in Francs
!, during 1890 have just been published
q SAYS the Ironmonger. They show tina
last years production of pig-iron at
IS tanned the total of l, 970, 100 tons-an in
crease of 247,7S0 tons upon 1889, ant
r within 100, 900 tons of the maximum o
d 1883. The total output of finished irol
was 1913, $50 tons. which is $4,000 ton
It above the preceding years total, but NJ
less than $50, 600 tons below the maxi
I mum of 1882 On the other hand, thu
= output of steel was the largest ever at
tanned. The total, 566, 1877 tons, exceed
70 that of 1889 by $1,000 tons, and that
1888 by nearly $4,000 tons.
Is al am confident" writes DR.. Prim
from Florida to the New York Journa
l. of Commerce, shat there is mucl
more numerous insect life in norther
New England in June and July than i
I any tropical country. Our northern fol
r ests and fields abound, day and nigh
in winged and wingless insects OF coun
4 less variety and numbers. Mosquitoes
is black flies and gnats are more OF pes
a. in the north than l have ever found
or the tropics. An accomplished eutomol'
v, gist, who has resided six years in Flo
ida and several years before that in Cal
"a ada. told me few days ago that his o
= servation fully accorded with mine, ar
that he had found insect life much mo-
plenti full in Canada than in Florida
TOO POLITE.
Over-Nice Mr.. Featherweight Was NJ