The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-12-03
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.


Photography has determined the
cause of the recent glacial avalanche in
the Alps. 1t was hydraulic pressure
beneath and behind the glacier, pro-
duced by masses of ice falling into con-
Meeting water above and at a consider.
able distance.
Indiana will make fine display at
the worlds fair of TIE results of manu-
featuring industries growing out of the
discovery of natural gas Since Indiana
first began to use the gas in 1885, it is
claimed, the growth of manufactures
in the state has been greater than. in
any other state in the Union.
The best lockwood comes from the
Caucasus, hitherto Turkish territory,
but taken by Russia. Since 1872 some
Of the forests have been closed and
others denuded of the tree At that
time (1S72) in Persia wood was dis
covered similar TO the Turkish or
Abasian lockwood, and as much as s, 600
tons have, in some years been imported
from that country.
The only wild monkeys in Europe
are those which inhabit the Rock of
Gibralter. They were once numerous
and bod, but the constant persecution
of their human brethren has made them
quite shy and reduced their tribe to the
verge of extinction. The remaining rep
resentatives of the tribe-probably less
than score-are carefully preserved
Indianapolis News.
The stratified masses of the earth's
crust, where most fully developed, at
tain united thickness of not less than
100000 feet. II they were all laid down
at the most rapid recorded rate of de-
mutation they would require a period
of 70, 600, 600 years for their completion.
If they Were laid down at the slowest
rate they would demand period of not
less than 6S0, 000, 900.
Prehistoric human skeletons have
been discovered in the excavation of a
cliff in Switzerland. These skeletons
are no nearer the ape than modern
ones. Vogt said recently that all the
races of men have been visited, and hui
man bones exhumed in all the coun-
tries, and yet not shadow of trace of
the missing link had been found.
Throughout all Japan there arc
now open for traffic LIZ miles of rail-
way. The only section in the neigh
borhood of the capital which has been
opened during the past twelve months
Is that stretching northward to Awo-
mou. This line, 127 miles in length,
was opened in the autumn of 1891, and
railway communication has thus been
completed to the most northerly coast
of the mainland of Japan toward Hado-
date. The only other line in progress is
the filling up of gap of five miles in
the line connecting Yokohama with the
northwest coast.
Over $50, 900 pounds of beet sugar
have been produced at the Chino fac
tory in San Bernardino, Cal, from this
growth of this industry in the state.
Four hundred thousand acres of beets
were planted against 2,700 acres last
year. The growers have Noted $3.50 a
ton, and one man, who bought twenty
acres of land and raised fifteen tons to
the acre, paid for this land with the
first beet crop. Since a bounty was
placed on beet sugar the farmers of
California have been quick to see the
profit in this industry.
The limit of size in object glasses
has not yet been reached. The maker
Tor polisher) of the reflector for the
Lick observatory believes that he can
turn out a perfect object glass five feet
in diameter if some one gives him an
order for it. The chief difficulty in
constructing large rcflcctors is mech.n-
ical. 1t is hard to cut glass disks of
great size perfectly free from defects.
Even if instruments several times as
large as existing refectors should be
made it is by no means certain that
their power of penetrating the mys-
teries of the heavens would be proper.
tionate to their sizes.