The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-03-22
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

| The shark is the fastest swimmer
of the fish tribe over long distances,
and finds no difficulty in keeping up
| with the swiftest vessels, swimming
and playing around them and ever on
| the lookout for morsels, small or large.
| Land snails are distinguished by
an extreme tenacity of life in every
| stage of growth. DR.. K. Stearns, in his
report on the mollusl1 fauna collected
during the voyage of the Albatross in
/ 1s51-S6, tells of one snail living without
food for at least six years and being
| apparently no worse for the long fast.
Its generally supposed that when
mans heart pulsations go down to forty
a minute death will follow unless re.
storatives are administered. Yet the
| pulsations of Thomas Lyons, of Benton
Harbor, Mich, have sunk as low as
eighteen a minute, although to all ap
| pearances he is well and strong.
! If parents are tall the children terd
to be tall, but the offspring of parents
of unequal height morc frequently fol-
low the shorter. Excessive tallness is
very rarely perpetuated; even if both
| che parents are above the average, the
height of the offspring is usually only
a third of the excess reached by the
| parents
| 1t is estimated that during the
/ sixteen weeks struggle in the coal in
| dustry of Great Britain, that the loss
| figured out the enormous total of $780,
| 600, 600 Among other items of this
| prodigious and practically unnecessary
waste, coal miners lost S24, 600, 600 in
wages; operators, S12 600, 900 in profits;
| iron workers, S4S, 600, 600; iron manu-
facturers, $500, 900; factory and work
shop employees, SIS, 800, 600 and employ
ers, 81, 500, 00.-Age of Steel
| Oklahoma continues to comport
herself as if she had been open to set
| Element hundred years instead of
only four. Her latest statistics show
nearly 100000 acres of farm land in
| use, with a cash value of more than
! 100000 900 Her farm implements are
worth $40, 900, and she has growing
| $3.50 apple trees, Gas, 900 peach trees,
/ $4,000 cherry trees, $1,000 pear trees,
and great variety of other fruit trees
| anu VI NlnSss Lie NHOlc JeTTlUOIN Is
! adapted to fruit-raising.- Y. Sun.
DR.. Koppen, of Hamburg, has COM
municated to the United States hydro
| graphic office his method for calming
the waves about a ship in times of
storm. He recommends the use of soap
! suds. G. w. Leutchales, assistant
| United States photographer, saws that
I ~ &c o,.+; al <,f, H., IL
! water which result in the formation of
waves. He also recommends soap suds
for preventing the growth of waves.
"A process of plating aluminium has
been devised by Prof. Neesen, Ger
man chemist which shows very good
results The aluminium is first dipped
in solution of caustic potash or soda,
CT. in muriatic acid, until bubbles of
gas begin to appear, then into corro-
sive sublimate, then a second time into
the caustic or acid, and finally into a
solution of a salt of the desired metal.
A film of the metal is rapidly formed,
and adheres so firmly that, in the case
of gold, silver or copper, the plate may
be rolled out or polished.
hib uilC SOAUlllSHb VI LuIOpc IL
passing through a cold period has been
pointed out by NJ. Flammarion, the
French astronomer. During the past
six years the mean temperature of
Paris has been about two degrees be-
low the normal, and Great Britain,
Belgium, Spain, Italy, Austria and
Germany have also been growing cold.
The change seems to have been in
progress in France for a long time, the
growth of the vine having been forced
far southwark since the thirteenth
century; and similar cooling has been
observed as far away as Rio de ia
Micro, where the annual temperature
has been going down for some years
past.
The deep sea thermometer as in
vented abroad and improved by officers
of the United States navy, is marvel
ously ingenious and effective contri-
vance. 1t is in effect a self-registering
| instrument, though not technically so
called. The thermometer is SO ar
| ranged that it is automatically turned
upside down when the machinery be-
gins to draw it up from the depth at
which the temperature is to be ascer-
tanned The effect of the inverting
process is to break the column of mer-
curry, and small portion of the col
umn remains in the upper end of the
tube, exactly enough to measure the
temperature at the moment of inver-
sion. The tube is graduated so as to
read from either end, and the quantity
of mercury in the upper part of the
tube is so small that it does not re-
spond to any but great and sudden
changes of temperature. 1t thus hap
pens that the reading, when the Their
mometer reaches the surface, is practi-
cally correct for the temperature at
the point of inversion.
A Remarkable Body of Water.
"Reelfoot lake, in western Tennes-
see, is one of the most remarkable