The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-12-13
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

bNClNC oul IlllICS III ADItltN, dllLDSb
four thousand laborers were reduced
to the dangers of starvation In the
mines still open laborers are glad to
work fourteen hours day for twenty
cents.
1t is well known that snakes have
usually a single lung. with a rudiment
of the other According to Cope's in
vestigations, snakes, like the boas,
with vertigial hind limbs, posses two
well-developed lungs, one of which is
larger than the other. In the striped
snake and allies (Colubroidea), the
right lung is generally present, but of
minute size.
1t has been generally supposed that
the largest lumber mills in the world
We're located on Puget Sound in this
country but such is not the fact. The
largest mill, so far as known, is in
Christiana. Norway, where one million
feet is produced daily. There are about
thirty gang saws and six planning and
matching machines, the latter of the
massive Norwegian design, which feed
at the rate of eighty to one hundred
feet per minnie.
The coal fields of China. Japan.
Great Britain, Germany, Russia and
India contain apparently, 3O3, 900, OOO,-
600 TONS which is enough for seven
hundred years at present rate of con-
sumption. If to the above be added
the coal fields in the United States
Canada and other countries, the supply
will be found ample for one thousand
years Improved machinery has great
ly increased the yield per miner, and
thus produced a fall in price, to the adj
vantage of all industries.
A mean solar day is the average or
mean of all the apparent solar days in
a year. Mean solar time is that shown
by a well-regulated clock or watch,
while apparent solar time is that shown
by a well-constructed sun dial. The
difference between the two at any time
is the equation of time, and may
amount to sixteen minutes and TWEEN
ty-one seconds. The astronomical day
begins at noon and the civil day at the
preceding midnight The sidereal and
mean solar days are both invariable,
but one day of the latter is equal to
one day three minutes and 56.555 sec
onds of the former.
Nature is full Of hints for the
benefit of the inventor. In the tropics
certain trees weave their inner bark
into excellent cloth, the most wonder
full example of this being the ''tapa" of
Polynesia. The hard outer she'll of
certain large nuts like the Brazil nut
of nI, y,,11,1C 60, 70
hold water and food. Bears We're the
first cave-dwcllers; beavers were the
oldtime lumberers; foxes excavated the
earth before there were men; the squir-
rels hid away food for future consump-
ton, and so did many birds; hawks
taught men to catch fish, spiders how
to spin, hornets to make paper, and
crayfish to work in clay.
"A new 'incendiary bomb" con-
trived by a German whose name is not
known as yet, is to be among the won
ders of the next great conflict in
Europe. Exploding with tremendous
energy, it scatters highly infammable
substances far and wide. Thus single
one bursting over town would set
whole district on fire at once The
spectacle of a besieged city in cam
paigns of the future will be altogether
novel, illuminating shells thrown by
the enemy lighting up its Notifications
at night with a glare equal to one
hundred thousand candle-power for
each shell, while Notwithstanding pro-
jectiles exploding overhead sprinkle
the houses and streets with a shower
of diabolical combustibles.