The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-08-03
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

4
$50, 900 tons of coffee. Estimating coffee
as being worth about $500 per ton
which is about a good average, thi.
represents an outlay of 5000, OOO, 900 fol
this one beverage each year.
The state of Wyoming abounds il
mineral riches Gold. tin, soda depos
its, some of these being actual Lake
beds of soda copper, lead. kaolin, fire
clay, mica. graphite, magnesia, plum
bago, sulphur, gypsum, white marble
granite, sandstone and petroleum are
| among the minerals found.-Philadel
phia Ledger.
AT the last meeting of the Ornith
oicgical society in Berlin DIR. Reiche
now communicated some particular:
of gigantic birds in Argentina double
the height of the ostrich. which repre-
sent our living cassowaries and os
tricheS
The largest asting ever made in
India was the anvil-block for a new
steam-hammer. which was recently cast
at the Jamalpur shops of the East In
dian railway. The block was cast close
to the spot where it will be used and
weighs about thirty-eight tons. The
iron used was a mixture of Indian iron
and imported (English) pig.
Flame from magnesia powder is to
be tested in lighthouse experiments at
New Haven, where the visual range OF
seventy miles may be obtained if neces'
sary. Neither oil, gas nor electricity
has proved satisfactory to the light
house board but the new process,
which is of German invention, is ex'
pected to solve the problem.
One singular property of all ami
NAL bodies is that of maintaining with.
in themselves an equable temperature.
The blood of the Arctic explorer re-
mains at normal temperature, though
he breathes air that will freeze mer.
curry, and in India, where the tempera-
ture of the air is lis to 100 above zero.
the temperature of the blood is still IS
degrees Fahrenheit.
Paper tough as wood is said to be
made by mixing chloride of zinc with
the pulp in the course of manufacture,
1t has been found that the greater the
degree of the concentration of the zinc
solution the greater will be the tough.
ness of the paper. 1t can be used for
making gas pipes, boxes, combs, for
roofing and even, it is added, for max
ing boats.
"A French vegetarian society. like
ancient Gaul, has become divided into
three parts. One wing calls itself
cerealite, to indicate that it believes
only in eating cereals: another will be
known as Unitarian, because it thinks
fruit the only proper food, and another
has been dubbed tuberile, because il
believes in eating roots. Each wing
thinks that the happiness and sta bility
of the human race depends on the
adoption of its views.-N. Y. Tribune.
MIR. Glaisher, the aeronaut, asserts,
after long and patient investigation,
that the ninth day of the moon is the
most rainy of the whole twenty-eight,
and that in the first and last weeks OF
the moons age the rainfall is less than
the average. The records kept by Mr..
GlaiSher also indicate o'clock in the
afternoon as the rainiest hour in the
day.
During the past year astronomers
have discovered 90 new planets. OF
this number two were found by Palisa,
the veteran asteroid hunter of vi.
emma" The remainder were appraised
by means of photography. During the
three opening months of the present
year % planets have been added to the
list. The total number of asteroids
known on April is 374. Astronomers
are confident that the number will be
400 before the close of the year.
Snakes do not bite" says New
Orleans physician who has studied
snakes considerably. They can't, he
says, because their jaws are connected
only by cartilage, are not hinged, and
cannot be brought together with any
force. The snake simply hooks the
fangs in its upper jaw into the object
aimed at, the lower jaw not figuring in
the act at all. The act is very similar
to that of man striking a cotton hook
into a bale of cotton, or a boat hook
into a pier.
AS long ago as 1888 years before
Christ. Alexander the Great employed
mirrors to convey signals by the light
of the sun. Since the time of the great
warrior the idea has been reduced to a
science and called photography" The
heliostat, an instrument invented in
Holland early in the eighteenth Gen.
fury. and the heliograph, invented by
Manse in 1875, have both been used by
the British army in their eastern cam
paigns. The instruments mentioned
differ somewhat in construction, but
the results are the same no matter
which instrument is used. In both
signals are produced by causing re-
Elected ray of the sun to appear and
disappear alternately at distant
point, the intervals of appearance and
observation being carried in lengths so
as to produce the combination of long
and short signals known as the Morse
alpha bet. In these instruments the
rejecting body is a glass mirror, which
varies in size according to the distance
to which it is desired to signal. A FIVE.
inch mirror has given under favora BILE