The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-03-04
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
The estimated total exports OF
corn, wheat and petroleum in 1892 wers
0,030 S0l bushels of corn. O,025, 172
bushels of wheat and 243, ,G72, $50 gal.
Ions of petroleum. The gain in the ce-
reals over 1891 was 10000, 900 bushels,
and in petroleum over 43, 900, 900 gallons
The production of iron mines of the
Lake Superior district for the year 1899
is placed at 9,025, 900 tons During the
year there were shipped by lake from
Escanaba 4,OO4, 900 tons; from Ashland
s,227, 407 tons, and from Two Harbors
l,155, 400 tons. The total lake shipments
were s, s,475,6O5 tons, as against 6, 444, 44O
tons last year, and S,063, 067 tons in
1890. Hallway Review.
The capitalization of American rail-
roads is set down at $1,000, 600, 900,
which is, of course, far too great an esti.
mate. However, the United States has
otwenty-six miles of railway to every ter
thousand inhabitants. The Interstate
commerce commission notes the fact
that the number of independent rail-
way companies was actually less in
1891 than in 1890, and that forty-two
companies own approximately half the
mileage. In 1891 the revenue of the
railroads was 1864, 600, OOO
The age of turtles, like the age OF
some excellent women, will never be
known. In many parts of the country
boys cut their initials on the shell ot
the tortoise, with the date, and then
watch for them in later years At Hat
boro, in Pennsylvania, one was found
with L. W., 1888, cut on the shell. Mr..
Levi Walton, who cut the lettering, is
still living, but the slow-going turtle
will probably outdo him in the race OF
life.
Can spiders prognosticate weather
changes? is answered by DR. McCook in
the negative. 1t is usually believed
that spiders fairly well indicate the
weather by ceasing to spin before foul
weather, and weaving freely before fair
weather. From observations made for
six years past he finds that many spe.
cies of orb weavers, which were colo
nized and kept under close observation,
make snares freely before rains and
storms, frequently even in the intervals
between heavy rains Thus a popular
fallacy is destroyed.
"A careful examination of the hearts
of the vegetarian and the meat eater
shows that the number of beats to the
former are fifty-eight to the minute,
and of the latter seventy-two. In TWEEN.
ty-four hours this means a difference ot
twenty thousand beats From this i,
is concluded that in the summer time
the vegetarian has the advantage, for
he can keep cooler and in better health,
under the reduced number of heart
beats. But in cold climate, or in our
such slow heart beats would hardly be
sufficient to make life strong and re.
sisting enough. The true verdict that
one must reach is that the vegetarian
is better off in the summer and the meat
eater stronger in the winter.
There are very important evidences
of internal heat derived from the uni-
versal phenomenon of fairly uniform
increase of temperature in all deep
wells, mines, borings or tunnels. This
| increase has been usually rcckoned as
degree Fahrenheit for each sixty feet
of descent, but a recent very careful
estimate by Prof. Prestwich, derived
from the whole of the available data,
gives degree Fahrenheit for every ATT
| feet of descent. 1t is curious indica.
ton of the universally of this in.
crease that even in the coolest parts OF
Siberia, where the soil is frozen to a
depth of 62O feet, there is steady in.
crease in the temperature of this frozen
soil from the surface downward.
"A writer in Science says that there
is no element of speech so variously
pronounced in dialect and by individ-
uals as the letter r. All varieties, he
explains are derived from frictional
emission of breath or of voice between
| two surfaces in the breath channel. 1t
may be made in the throat in the gut
tural passage between the back of the
tongue and the soft palate, between
the arched top of the tongue and the
roof of the mouth-commou in the
United States, the normal r, produced
between the point of the tongue and
the upper gum, and by transferring
the sound from the tongue to the lips,
so that r has the sound of w. Another
series results from q rattling organic
vibration instead of a mere friction OF
the breath of voice.