The Van Buren press., 1893-05-20
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Institute at Hamburg, states that old
seeds are often bleached by process
Of dioxide of sulphur, which robs the
seed of per cent Of its growing prop
critics.
The museum at Leyden contains
huge and almost perfect Epiornis egg,
bought from a Frenchman for thou
sand guilders or about s4OO, something
less than third of the price paid not
long since for the egg of the great aux
sold at auction at Stevens rooms in
London.-N. Y. Independent.
"A man weighs less when the bar
ometer is high, notwithstanding the
fact that the atmospheric pressure on
him is more than when the barometer
is low. As the pressure of air on an
tons, the rise of the mercury from 30 to
81 inches adds about one ton to the
load he has to carry.
Savannah has long been the lead
ing city in America in naval supplies,
and last year beat her own record.
The receipts of rosin and turpentine ut
that port for the twelve months ended
March Is were 1,274,937 barrels, an in
crease of 100000 barrels over the re-
ceipts of the previous year. These
figures have never been equalcd at ahy
port on this centinent.-Atlanta Jour
nal
The rubber industry is one of the
most profitable of this generation. Col
lis p. Huntington once said that II he
were young man with 100000 he
would go to Africa and engage in the
rubber business. "Why," said the rail
road magnate, ''you can buy crude rub
ber on the Congo-away up in the IN
terior-for a penny pound, and when
you get it down to the coast You can
sell it for nearly 100 times as much.
know of no better opening for young
men of grit and nerve"
The complete statistics show that
the production of beet sugar in the
United States has more than doubled
during the past year, although there
has been no increase in the number of
factories. The total production of the
six factories was 27,0s3,322 pounds,
against total of 1a.0s4, ,s3s pounds last
year. Experiments in growing sugar
beets have been tried in a number of
the western states, and the success has
been so great that the number of fac
tories will be increased. "a =
The least distance determined for
the fixed stars from the earth runs into
billions of miles. Some notion of the
reality may be derived from the fact
that if our sun were removed about
200, 600 times it's present distance from
the earth, it would appear to us simply
as star of the first magnitude. The
distance in such case would exceed
10, 600, 600, 900 of miles. 1t follows that
II the nearest fixed star is further off
than this, as appears to be the fact,
every star Of the Arst magnitude must
be larger or brighter than our sun. ftN
The orbit of the planet Neptune,
thirty times further from the sun than
that Of the earth, forms the outer
boundary of the solar system. The
distance is immense, yet shrinks into
insignificance when compared with
that which lie. beyond So vast is the
gulf which intervenes between our
earth and the stellar universe that, al
though many of the stars are in all
probability larger and brighter than
our sun, yet tae most powerful tele-
scope is not AIle to give them any APP
preciable diameter. mere point of
light being hll that is visible. 80
The promise made by Mime. Schlie-
mann after the death of her dis
tinguished husband in 1890, that the
excavations OF Troy would be con-
tinued, is about to be fulfilled. Arrange
ments have been made to begin the
work again next month under the
direction of Professor Doerpfeld the
first secretary Of the German Arch2o-
logical institute of Athens. Nine.
Schliemann herself will spend consider
able time on The field of operations
Professor Doer.'feld under her direc-
tions and his Assistants will welcome
visitors to the place who wish to in
vestigate the progress of the work and
see personally the interesting sights.
In no country do English mining
Investments appear to such advantage
rs in the Wity,atersland, South Africa.
From figures recently published it is
learned that the twenty-four principal
CoihPaHico3 hafiHS dh i"oueu SaPie"i u
R7,s43,672, plid dividends in 1892
amounting to e7u1 .04s, on at the rate of
1919 per cent. vpcn issued capital. Ac-
cording to the market quotations OF
the stocks of these companies on Jan
uary l, 1898, the properties were worth
f12. $50, 900, which would reduce the
dividend rate to 600 per cent, bnt even
so the showing is q good one. OF the
twenty-four companies mentioned
eight, representing an issued capital of
e., ,647, 600 and an actual quoted value
of a3, ,470, 900, paid no dividends at all,
consequently the dididends paid were
at the rate of 17-S per cent. on the
issued capital of the dividene-paying
companies and at the rate OF S.3 per
cent. on their quoted valne.--Er gineer-
ing and Mining Journal. l ssh 8 an,sR
Nj. Lepirre, French artist, states
that in demonstrating that sulphur
melted at about lis degrees can be
cooled in paper, he happened to use
Autographed card, of which the edges
were turned up. Upon taking away
the card it was discovered that the
Autographed characters were clearly
and distinctly impressed upon the
cooled surface of the sulphur, remain-
ing thus after hard friction and wash
ing. BY repeated experiments in this
direction he has succeeded in obtaining
results of q very satisfactory character,
removing the paper each time by
4 4 4. I = IA