The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-07-28
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

Great Britain exports every year
about clio, 900, 900 of textile fabrics,
e6O. 900. 700 of metals, ell 100000 OF |
clothing and $4,000, 900 OF chemicals.
Russia exports wheat, cattle, hides,
wool, gold, iron, copper, lumber and
platinum, and manufactures enormous
quantities of alcohol and sugar.
The Cape of Good Hope raises
wheat. oats. Indian corn, rye and
barley. 1t also makes 1000, 900 gallons
of wine every year and 100000 OF
brandy.
-Toads and frogs carry supply OF
water about with them in sack pro-
vided for the purpose. If, by accident,
the supply becomes exhausted, the
animal dies.
The strongest timber known is the
"Bilian. or Borneo ironwood, whose
breaking strain is one and fifty-two
hundredths times greater that that OF
English oak. BY long exposure it be
comes of ebony blaclness and inn
mensely hard.
Farmers in Tasmania and Eastern
Australia frequently turn up with
plow a substance that resembles po-
tato, but is, in reality, a species OF poly
porus fungus. 1t is allied to the Tuck
ahoe or Indian bread found in the
United States, but, unlike its American
congener, has no value as food, being
insipid and indigestible.
Good pencil cedar Is getting SO
scarce that the great firm of Faber "
Co. have begun to cultivate forests OF
cedar in Germany. At Schloss Stein
there is a cedar forest which covers
thirteen acres, and the head of the firm
has for many years maintained nurser-
les and plantations of cedars on his
land in Bavaria, grown from seed
which he imported from Florida.
Mr.. II. II. Dixon has been studying
the locomotion of insects and spiders
by means of instantaneous photographs.
He finds, says Nature, that the limbs
move together in diagonals. In insects
the first and third legs on one side
move with the second on the other, the
anten@ moving with the first leg on
the same side. In the case OF spiders,
which have eight legs, the frst and
| LIllfu Oh Ouc SlSlc iIlONC WIN VIZ 'S~SA~>'
and fourth on the other.
Murray Challenger expedition
states the greatest depth of the Atlantic
ocean at 1886 feet; Pacific ocean,
thirty thousand feet; Indian ocean
1882 feet; Southern ocean. 200 feet
Arctic ocean, nine thousand feet. The
Atlantic ocean has an area in square
miles of 24,536, 600; Pacific ocean, So
800, 900; Indian ocean, II, 0S4 900; Arctic
ocean, 4,7sl 900; Southern ocean, 30,
592, 900. The highest mountain is be
lieved to be Deodhunga, one OF the
Himalayas, 29,O02 feet.
M. f. Walter has found that an al
10y consisting of ninety-five parts o
tin and five parts of copper adheres sc
tenaciously to glass that it may be em
ployed as solder to join the ends O
of glass tubes. 1t is obtained by adding
the copper to the tin previously melted
agitating with wooden stirrer, cast
ing or graduating. and then re-melt
ing. 1t melts at about 800 degrees c
BY adding from half to one per cent o
lead or zinc, the alloy may be rendere'
either softer or harder, or more or les
easily fusible. 1t may also be used TO
silvering metals or metallic thread
Revue Scientifque.
--Celluloid is prepared from dry GU
cotton treated to solution of campho
in the least possible quantity Of alcohol
As layer is placed on layer of the gu
cotton the solution is sprinkled upon
;. until finally it sinks into Transporter
Jumps. These are first worked betwee
cold iron rollers, and then rollers heate
s by steam, forming layers that are finall
subjected to hydraulic pressure. Ate
thorough drying Of the resulting plate
: they are nodded while warm, cut an
, turned into any desired form. I'll
= a imitation of amber, coral and the lil'
is accomplished by coloring the lump
- of celluloid as first formed and pressin
various colors together in the propo
. tions and patterns desired. Non-cor
: bustible celluloid has not yet bee
:, made. La