The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-05-20
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

--During the last seven years the land
under tillage in Victoria, Australia, has
increased by 100000 acres, and the
.atable value of country lands has in
creased from e55, ZOO, 900 to e65, 900, 900
sterling.
In the lumber season just closed in
Minnesota the ''cut" for the year was
AT, rs, 252 feet, 207, 221 900 shingles and
u, 697, 900 lath. This beats the record
Of last year by 1903, 1873, 800 feet of lum-
Der, 45,OO3, 500 shingles and 17,40O, $50
lath.
The following are a few examples
Of the rate of pay of women in London:
Making paper bags, 4d per 1, 900; possi-
bic earnings, IS to 9s per week. But
tonholes Sd per dozen; possible earnings,
SIS per week. Shirts, I'd, each worker
finding her own cotton; can get six done
between 8 a. m. and IL p. m.
Some doctors say that flowing
boards, in addition to tempting lorna
loes to blow thro ugh them, undoubt-
IDLY attract and retain the grip mi
robes. From inquiries it seems that be-
whiskered gentlemen have suffered
| nOTt lTOlu inc ulScdSt uIidH tlOSc WllO
walk about with clean-shaven faces.
| DR.. Strings Motorcycles typhlops,
The marsupial mole of Australia, is
thought by Mr.. Ogilby to be a connect
ng link bet ween the monotremes 1.-THE
duck bill and spiny anteater) and the
narsupials. Several English natural
SITS think that its afiinities are closer
to the monotremes than to the latter
mammals.
| An industrial association of Paris
has published the electro-chemical
method of sharpening files. They are
suspended for twenty minutes from a
metal plate in mixture of one hundred
parts water, six parts nitric acid and
three parts sulphuric acid. The COR
rision takes place in the cavities, sharp
ening the edges.
The most delicate scientific machine
yet produced has recently been COM
,leted by Prof. II enry Rowland, of the
Johns Hopkins university. tits Intended
Tor studying the movements of fixed
stars, and is so delicate that it can rule
| 200, 900 lines to the inch. Even with
the strongest microscope, only about
100000 lines to the inch can be detected
by the human eye.
| Secretary Langley, of the Smith
sonian Institution, says that by put
ing dozen fireflies in cage together
the Cubans obtain continuous light
bright enough to read by. This light
has no heat and seems to be produced
by no expenditure of energy. In all
known artificial light the waste is over
30 per cent, so that if this waste could
be avoided the light given would be
nearly 100 times as great as under the
present conditions.
In South Africa nature furnishes
ready to hand a substitute for the fly
paper Americans have so patiently to
prepare, in the shape of plant botan-
cally Roraduta dentota. 1t grows several
feet high, and is hung in rooms of the
,olonists to catch flies, just as the arti-
fetal article is here. 1t is closely allied
to the Droseras, the Sun-pews of our
swamps, made so memorable by Mr..
Darwin's works, in which he shows
that these plants catch insects for the
direct purpose of eating them, that they
are really carniverous plants.
The rapid stsides which the south
is making in industrial and material
prosperity are shown by the striking
figures presented by Mr.. Carroll ID.
Wright, United States Commissioner of
Labor, in an address at Nashville. In
ten years-from 1880 to 1S90-cotton
mills increased in number from 1871 to
834, spindles from 100000 to 1000, 900
and the value of products from SIG, OOO,-
900 to s54,OO0,OOO. During the same
period the capital invested in wooden
manufactures increased from 81, 600, 900
to $40, 200, 900. In 1880 the banking cap
ital of the south was s92,0O0,000; in 1890
it was $17lO00,00O The total capital
invested in manufactures and establish
ments of all kinds rose from sl79, 900, 900
in 1880 to $551 100000 in ls9O.-N. Y.
Herald.