The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1893-01-11
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
Finger nails grow most rapidly upoi
the healthy.

ringer nails grow most rapidly upon
the healthy.
In Glasgow, Scotland, they have got
the pneumatic tires on the omnibuses.
In France hard water has been success
fully made soft by means of electricity.
Drying sweet potatoes aud grinding
the chips into flour promises a new in
dustry.
They are going to make part of the
propeller shaft of the United States
cruiser Brooklyn of nickel.
On clear night red light can be
seen at greater distance than a white
light, but on dark night the reverse is
the case.
The air is so rareled at the top of
Pixies Peak in Colorado that cats
taken there invariably have fits, and
never live more than six months.
Theosophists favor cremation tor two
reasons: 1t is the common Hindoo
method Of disposing of the dead, and it
is a convenient and expeditions way of
letting loose the astral body.
The largest electric locomotive yet
built has just been finished at Baden,
Zurich. IL is believed that it will show
extraordinary speed, as it is gauged so
as to develop not less than 2000-horse
power.
Black alkali lands are those which
contain large amounts of bittern salts,
Chords of calcium and magnesium and
carbonate OF soda. These salts dissolve
the hubus of the soil and prevent vege-
table growth.
The frizzled glass threads from which
cloth is woven are said to surpass in fine
ness not only the finest cotton, but even
the threads of the silk worms cocoon,
their softness and elasticity being even
greater than that of manufactured silk
clint"
An inventor has made an application
for patent for a new calculating ma
chine which Is reported to be a marvel
lous affair of its kind. 1t is simply
rTrned by handle, and is said to evolve
multiplications with product of twenty
figures in the third of a minute.
The largest species of rootless plants
are the "seaweeds" of the Atlantic, Pa
cific and Indian Oceans. In plants of
the seaweed kind the structure varies
considerably, some being merely micro
scopic vesicles, while others have vines
and stems as large as the average forest
trees.
About two years ago the annual tariff
for telephone service in Switzerland was
reduced from $29 to $3.50. The re-
suit has been an increase i'll stations from
6944 to IL, ,595, or about eighty-one per
cent. A subscriber is entitled to 500
conversations year and must pay one
cent for every one over that number.
A new system of railway conduits has
been invented which is dependent for its
insulating qualities in wet weather upon
the principle of the diving-bell. The
wires are supported in the top of an iu-
verted trough made with closed ends,
but open at the bottom, so that when
water fills the conduit the air contained
in the inverted troughs will prevent the
water from rising to the height of the
wires.
The speed of electricity is so great that
its passage from point to point along e
conducting wire may be regarded as
practically instantaneous. Various at.
tempts have been made to measure the
rate at which it travels, and observers,
with delicate instruments, have affirmed
that it was not less than one hundred
and fourteen thousand miles per second,
and at one or two places its speed was
as high as 240, 900 miles.