The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1893-01-07
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

was sculptured figures The jewellers
of India were the first to use it as q
ground for mounting precious stones,
and the finest known specimens of this
work are found in the India Museum al
London.
According to Nj. Flammarion, the
French astronomer, the mean tempera-
ture of Paris during the past six years
has been about two degrees below the
normal. 1t is also stated that Great
Britain, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Austria
and Germany have also been growing
cold.
M. Adam Paulsen, of the Royal
Danish Academy, has been conducting
series of experiments to measure the
heights of the aurora borealis. At God
thaab the approximate height was from
one to four miles, at Cape Farewell
from one to ten miles, at Spitzenburg
from one-third of a mile to eighteen
| miles. The measurements were made
with theodolites esa & e
The Lick Observatory announces
that Prof. Barnard has added a fifth
satellite to the four satellites of Jupiter
discovered by Calico on january, 1910.
1t was discovered by Barnard on Sep
TENDER o. It's period is about /, hours
and SO minutes. Its distance from the
planet center is about lie, 400 miles, 1t
was observed by him on September 10,
| 20 hours, So minutes and 20 seconds
Greenwich mean time. It's magnitude
is the 18th.
The little RATS of eggs that gnats
set afloat on the water are kept from
sinking and from being upset from the
fact that the tiny eggs have their points
all upward, and they are glued to-
gether so closely, that while there is
open space all around the point of each
egg, yet the width of these spaces is SO
slight that water cannot readily pass
through. You may again and again up
set such an egg raft, but it will right
itself every time, and the upper surface
will remain dry. =
There seems to be little doubt that
the number of the visible stars is really
limited Most astronomers now admit
that the total number of stars visible in
our largest telescopes cannot much ex-
coed 100, 100000. This is. of course, a
large number, but compared with an
indefinite number it is really very
small 1t may be proved mathemati-
| ca1ly-and the demonstration is a very
simple one-that were the number of
stars really infinite, and equally dis
tributed through infinite space, the
| whole heavens would shine with the
brightness of the sun.
| Though cast-ircn pipes are the best
for water under pressure, in a longer or
| shorter time they generally become in
crusted, according to the quality of the
water, the deposit consisting, as is ia
miliarly understood, for the greater
lime. Thus, of course, thorough
cleansing of these pipss-is one of the
most important problems in engineer
ing, three principal methods being re-
sorted to; namely, taking out the pipes
from time to time, heating them, and
scraping out the deposit that is loos-
ened by the heat; cleaning them with
brushes and scrapers before the deposit
gets hard; dissolving the deposit with
acid.
-Hairpins are made by automatic and
| very complicated machines. The coiled
wire is put upon drums, and becomes
Strengthened as it feeds itself to the ma
chine. 1t passes along until it reaches
two cutters, which point the ends at the
same time that they cut it to the length
required. This piece of wire then slips
along an iron plate until it reaches a
slot. through which it is pressed into
the regular shape. The hairpins are
then put into pan and japanned, after
which they are heated in an oven with
| temperature o. from 800 to 400 degrees.
| There are but four American factories.
The largest are in Birmingham and
Waterbury, Conn.,, the others in Phila-
delphia and Brooklyn. Five hundred
dollars worth of hairpins are annually
imported from England, France and
| Germany.
| Some time ago ''isoprene," which
had before been identified among the
products of the destructive -distillation
of India rubber, was discovered among
the products derived by moderate heat
from oil of turpentine. Isoprene can
be reconverted into India rubber by the
action of strong acids, as muriatic acid.
Not very long ago DR.. Tilden pro.
duced lot of isoprene from turpentine.
After it had been kept for some weeks
it was found to have. become thick and
sirupy and to have humps of hard elias
| tic substance floating in it. which
proved to be true rubber. This rubber
is said to be exactly like the natural
product, and equally susceptible of vul-
cauization. The importance of the dis.
covery, in view of the growing scarcity
Of rubber can hardly be over-estimated.
| THE LAST BUS.