Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-01-01
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

Clouds are on the average about
500 yards ill thickness.
American tools are far better than
those of European make.
The largest fish known to science IS
the basking shark, an enormous but
harmless variety.
A steel ship has been constructed In
Cardiff, Wales, with the standing rig
ging, rs well as the hull, all of steel.
The largest known species of night.
flying insects is the Atlas moth, a resi-
dent of the American tropics, which
has wing spread of over a foot.
Human hair varies in thickness
from the 25Oth to the 600th part of an
inch. The coarsest fiber of wool Is
about one 2OOth part of an inch in
diameter; the finest only the l5ooth
part.
South American ants have been
known to construct tunnel three
miles in length, labor for them pro-
portionate to that which would be re-
auired for men to tunnel under the
Atlantic from New York to London.
MANY larvae of beetles and other
insects are used for food the bee gives
honey and wax, the coccus mamma and
cochineal, the Spanish fly blistering
drug, the gall insects an astringent,
and the silk worm an article of dress.
In Japan there are now twenty pub
bile electric companies in operation.
Further companies are proposed, and
there is considerable demand for
electrical engineers. Nearly all of the
companies are conducted by Ameri-
cans
A New England firm is introducing
an automatic gas lighter for street
lamps, which works on the prin-
ciple of an eight-day clock. Ii is
explained that the only attention the
lighter requires is weekly winding
of the clock movement, and that it
lights the lamp at the required time
and extinguishes it at daybreak.
Safety matches that can be used
without box are to be placed on the
English market by German inventor.
The idea is to tip the two ends of the
wood separately with those compost
tions' which in the ordinary way go
one on the box and the other on the
match. To use, break the wood
across the middle and rub the ends to-
gether.
An agent of the Suez Canal Com
pany has invented an apparatus to
split the electric lights that illuminate
the canal into two divergent streams,
one sending out rays one way, the
other in the opposite direction. This
enables ships to approach each other
and meet with perfect safety. Formerly
the lights blinded pilots SO that they
could not see vessels coming in the op-
posite direction.
A physician points ont that fat
people endure most kinds Of illness
much better than thin people, because
they have an extra amount of nutri-
ment stored away in their tissues to
support them during the ordeal
Moreover, there are many other con
solations for persons of abundant
girth. They are generally optimist
by nature, genial and jolly com
panions, whose society is universally
preferred to that of people will
angular frames and dispositions.
At recent State fair an inventor
exhibited machine that he had con-
structed for converting grapes into
sugar and syrup. Experts who wit
messed the operation and others affirm
that the process is complete sue
cess The experiments were mostly
confined to Muscat and other sweet
grapes known to carry large amount
! of saccharine matter. Heretofore the
difficulty has been in granulatint
grape sugar. But by this new pro
cess it is claimed that granulation Ii
perfect.