The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-05-27
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

WITHIN few years past over lOO,-
600. 900 of those little wire cork screws,
used in ink and medicine bottles, have
been sold. Machines turn them out at
the rate of $4,000 per day.-Pharm. Era.
Exports of breadstuffs continue
enormous and show wonderful increase
in value. One State street circular
points out that for the eight months,
July, 1891 to March 1. 1892, their value
was $4,000, 900, against 81. 900 for
the same period in 0-91.-Boston ADJ
vertiser.
-Earwigs differ from all other insects
in both their origin and structure; they
are Matched from eggs, like chickens.
Naturalists often report seeing the ma
ternal earwig with her newly Matched
brood crowded under her like chickens
under a hen.
The perpendicularity of a monu-
ment is, although few may be aware of
it, visibly affected by the rays of the
sun. On every sunny day tall monu-
ment has regular swing leaning away
from the sun. This phenomenon is due
to the greater expansion of the side on
which the rays of the sun fall.
1t is said that engravers in Germany
harden their tools in sealing wax. The
tool is heated to whiteness and plunged
into the wax, withdrawn after an in
slant and plunged in again, the process
being repeated until the steel is too
cold to enter the wax. The steel is
said to become after this process almost
as hard as the diamond.
The prospects of the Chinese tea
trade continue to grow more gloomy,
says London Figaro. At general
meeting of teamen recently held in one
of the Foochow districts it was stated
that during the last five years, the hum
dred and eighty houses engaged in the
business lost over 81, 900, 900. More than
half of these decided not to go on risk
ing their capital, and are therefore re-
firing. 1t is believed that the foreign
merchants will benefit by the reduced
competition.
According to Prof. Mer, in Complies
Rendus, starch is very abundant
through the bark and woody structure
of trees about the fall of the leaf. 1t il
gradually reduced in quantity till the
buds begin to swell in spring, when il
is rapidly formed again. BY the end of
April in France there was as much as in
the previous September. These results,
from apparently very carefully con-
Quoted experiments, completely reverse
what has hithertoo been regarded rs
the solid truths of science"
An extraordinary archaeological find
is reported from IIelsingfors, in Fin
land. 1t consists of huge chest with
complicated fastenings of iron, which,
together with the other details of it's
structure, point to date early in the
middle ages On being opened it was
found to contain quantity of ancient
ironwork and large roll of parch-
ments. The manuscripts begin with
the following words: "Suger prebs abb
S. Dion dixit ~ Then comes a
complete and detailed treatise in Latin
on steam considered as a force and on
its applications-in short, very accu-
rate discourse on modern physics.
Oregon fruit growers say that Ore
gon is to be the greatest fruit growing
state in the Union. One fruit expert
says that Italian prunes grown in the
w illdIntJlt valley are superior 10 JHOSc
Is niSe- the great 1rult region OF ASIA
Minor. One grower has planted about
Is, 600 prune trees in $50 acres in the
Willamette, and it is said that prunes
and other fruits are being planted in
thousands of other farms. That part of
the state promises to be n vast fruit
orchard in the near future.-N. Y.
Tribune.
There is probably no such water
system in England, or even in Europe,
as that which the city of Birmingham,
England, has in contemplation, the plan
involving an outlay of some s25, 0O0,0 600,
and in the neighborhood of eighty miles
of conduits, tunnels, and pipes to bring
the water to the city. The present con-
sumption of the city. which is some
days as high as 22,OOO,OO0 gallons. is
rapidly exhausting the capacity OF the
watershed from which it is drawn and
the municipal authorities have selected
as the site of the new reservoirs val
lev in Wales i'm which two rivers join; a
valley which is about 500 feet above the
city, surrounded by a region practically
uninhabitable. thus making the future
pollution of the water improbable, and
the supply is regarded as perfectly mex
haustible.