Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1892-06-18
soientlfioaI and Industrial.

Compressed air is to be used for
running the street cars in Leayen-
worth, Kan.
Rain making experiments, conduc-
ted in India, have resulted in com
plete failure.
The signal officer at Cape May, N.
j., report the discovery of new fish
resembling the sea trout.
Platinum has been discovered in
the Southern Hills, twenty-five miles
southwest of Rapid City, s. D.
The bark of the Australian Mimo-
sa is now used as tannin for hides To
make morocco leather, as it gives a
slightly reddish tint.
The development of lost limbs is
declared by an English naturalist to
be not unusual among insects, in
which it may take place either dur
ing the larvel or pupal stage.
1t is said that in all the forests of
the earth there are no two leaves ex-
actly the same. 1t is also said that
amid all peoples of the earth there
are no two faces precisely alike.
Wood glucose bread is used in
Germany as feed for cattle. The
cellulose is transformed into grape
sugar. and added to it is about forty
per cent. of meal of wheat, oats or
rye.
A specimen of capped petrol.
bird supposed to be an extinct or at
least lost species, was recently
found in England. The original
home of the petrol is said to have
been the islands of st. Domingo and
Gaudaloupe.
The viscid secretion of gals upon
the British oak attract small ants,
which, according to DR.. E. Rathay,
benefit the tree by killing great guam
titles of caterpillars and other injur
ious insects. In single day the in
habitants of a single ants nest may
destroy more than 100000 insects.
= An insect of South America has
its fangs so like the flower of the or
child that smaller insects are tempt
ed into it's jaws, while certain spiders
double themselves up in the angle
between the leaf stalk and the stem,
and SO closely resemble flower buds
that their unsuspecting prey approach
their destruction.
Wonderful things are related con-
cernlng the work of photography of
the stars at the Cape of Good Hope,
South Africa. One negative, repre-
senting space of only one-fourth
the apparent diameter of the moon,
contained impressions of $4,000
stars, most of which are invisible to
the eye even when telescope of high
power is used.
OF all menagerie stock, the mon
key is the most precarious. The
comparative comfort of a roof tree
does not compensate for the activity
of their natural life, and, considering
that they feed on fresh fruits in the
primeval forests, it is not amazing
that after time an unlimited dietary
OF hazel nuts and stale buns is apt
to disagree with the quadrumanal
digestion.
A new evaporating apparatus for
sugar beet juices is attracting atten-
ton in Germany. The temperature
and pressure are uniform through
out each compartment. Juices are
introduced from the top upon tubes
Which are Theoretically closed. The
concentrated juice that falls to the
bottom is drawn off by pumps, and
the juices are not allowed to remain
at the bottom of a compartment.
Consul General Playfair, in his re-
port upon the agriculture ofAlgeria,
gives some details about the meas
ures taken there to preserve the
crops from the depredations of the
locusts. In the Department of AL
giers the amount of labor with this
end in view equalled 20,939 days. Ia
Dor Of monitors. 234,417 days labor
of soldiers, 1858 days. labor of
natives, and 46,961 days labor Of
animals, to say nothing of private
measures ofprotection adopted. The
sum thus expended was nearly
5000, 600 f., but with the result of