The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-02-16
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Epyornis, the extinct giant bird of
Madagascar, and obtained from south
| ern Madagascar, was exhibited at re-
cent meeting of the Geological society
of London. 1t will be remembered that
this egg is about IS inches long. and of
the capacity of $50 hens eggs.
If pound of coal is subjected to a
dry distillation and the products and
residuals treated chemically by tho
processes for obtaining the well-known
coal tar colors," says the Age of Steel
of st. Louis. ''the one pound so treated
will yield enough magenta to color 500
yards, aurine for 12O yards and aliza-
rine sufficient for 155 yards of red
cloth"
1t is estimated that there are $780,
600, 100000 feet of available lumber
standing in the forests of the state of
Washington. This is an average of Is, 900
feet for every acre of land in the state
Many thousands of feet of cedar lum-
Der are now being shipped from Wash
ington to what few years ago was the
heart of the Wisconsin pine region.
The sack-sewing gage thrown down
by Pendleton, Or, man a few days
ago. on a basis of his sewing up 600
fifty-pound bags in five hours is taken
up by a sack-sewer in Portland flour
mill. The latter has a record, so it is
claimed, OF weighing, sewing, and
trucking away 1859 fifty-pound sacks in
one hour. and 10 hundred-pound sacks
l..
, hundred to 200 sacks in ten hours is
said to be the average in Portland
mills.
An expedition is proposed to locate
the north magnetic pole, the point Sc
lected for Investigations being King
Williams Land. 1t is desired to dis
cover the law that governs the con-
stantly occurring changes in magnetic
declination, inclination and intensity,
SO that these variations may be calcu-
lated for future periods as eclipses are.
1t will also be sought to establish
whether the so-called pole was fixed or
moving at the point where the needle
assumes the vertical position.
If the Pacific could be laid bare. we
should have most singular spectacle
There would be number of mountains
with truncated tops scattered over it,
and those mountains would have an APP
pearance just the very reverse of that
presented by the mountains we see on
shore. You know that the mountains
on the shore are covered with vegeta-
ton at their bases, while their tops are
barren or covered with snow; but these
mountains would be perfectly bare at
their bases. and all round their tops
they would be covered with beautiful
vegetation of coral polypes.
Herr Weismann. distinguished
German biologist, has pointed out that
the average duration of the life of birds
is by no means we'll known. Small
singing birds live from eight to eighteen
years Ravens have lived one hundred
years and parrots still longer in cap
tivity. Fowls live from ten to twenty
years. The wild goose lives over one
hundred years, and swans are said to
have attained the age of three hundred.
The long life of birds has been regarded
as compensation for their lack of fertil-
ity and the great mortality of their
young.
"A specimen Of soft, bituminous coal
from the Argentine Republic of South
America has been analysed by Kyle.
and found to contain the element vana-
drum, principally in the condition of
vanadic pentoxide, each ton of coal con-
tanning about four pounds of the pure
pentoxide. Aside from the scientific
interest of the occurrence Of this rare
metal in a coal deposit, it will undoubt-
eddy prove valua BILE and cheap source
of supply of a substance which is ex-
tensively used in dye works
France has 1000, 600 head of cattle
which yield daily 1000, 900 gallons of
milk, worth $3.50, 600, 900 annually. The
Flemish, Norman and Breton breeds of
cattle give the most milk The milk
trade of Paris is almost entirely in the
hands of few important companies;
the milk is guaranteed free from adul-
iteration and is sold in bottles of glass.
stone ware and porcelain. The large
quantity of milk used is partly owing
to the milk cure prescribed by many
French physicians and also to the use
of milk rs a beverage at meals instead
of wine.