The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-05-12
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.
1T is said that q frigate bird can
fly al the rate of one hundred miles an
hour, and live in the air week at q
time, day and night, without touching
| Q roost.
Contracts for about $4,000 tons OF
rails are said to have been placed this
year, and there are inquiries in hand
"for about 10000 tons, of which one
| half are intended for roads west of the
Mississippi"
The aerial space within the limit
OF our vision is calculated to have a
diameter of 42O, 600. 600, 600 miles, and q
circumference of 1. 329, TAG. 600, 900 miles
And this is only a fragment of the i'm
mensity of space.
Solid air, Prof. Dewar's latest won
derful achievement, is produced by
placing tube Of air.. g., an ''empty"
tube-inside another full of LIQUID
oxygen, and boiling of the oxygen
under high vacuum. The intense
cold produced by the evaporation
brings down the air in the inner tube
as liquid and then in solid or icy
form.
The total gold output of the colony
OF Victoria, Australia, during last year
was 707, 367 ounces, of the value of
about s15,000,000 This was A,
ounces more than the yield in 1892 and
the largest since 1885. The gold ex-
port from Cape Colony. Africa, during
last year was 1,490, 1876 ounces, valued
at about $40. CSC, 900.
Neptune takes 1875 years in making
Its journey around the sun, so that
more than century would have passed
away on our earth before it had COM
pleted one year. Neptune is so far
away from our earth that, although it
is the third largest planet, we cannot
see it unless we look through tele-
scope.
"A few years ago number of scien-
lists of New England made a calcula-
ton as to the amount of water given to
the atmosphere by the washington
Elm," Cambridge, Mass. They calcu-
lated that the leaves of that tree would
cover over 100000 square feet of sur
face, and that they gave out every fair
day during the growing season 1850
pounds, or ~ tons, of moisture.
According to Bonfort's Wine and
Spirit Circular, Italy is the gree test
wine-producing country in the world,
'her annual production amounting on
an average to 675, 000,O 900 gallons.
France and Spain come next, each with
about 1000 600 gallons. The COM
bined production of Austria and Hum
gary each year is some 215, 900, 900 gal
Ions; that Of Portugal. 49,, 900, 900; Rus
s'a, "a. 700, 900; Greece, $1,000, 900; Rou-
mania, 50, 800, 600; Germany, 51,70O, 900;
Bulgaria, 49.676, 900, and Turkey, 81.
500, 900.
Depression in the locomotive build
ing industry in England is said to have
resulted in 92S fewer hands l,eing en-
ployed in 1898 and 2,661 fewer than in
1891. The St James Gazette adds:
1T is probable that another thousand
will be dismissed next month, and the
for 1894 are said to be poor.
The worst of 1t is that good deal of |
the falling off is in foreign orders. A |
large part of the world used to get its |
locomotives from Great Britain. Now,
nnhappily, it makes them at home or
gets them from America"
"A modern treatment for nervous |
prostration requires that the patient |
be put to bed in quiet room and fed |
Tor weeks on enormous quantities of |
milk. He must take exercise, how
aver, and this he does by proxy through
he device of massage. He must do
absolutely nothing for himself, aud if
lis nose itches the nurse must scratch
t. Patients under such treatment
'ometimes gain four or five pounds of
iesh per week. 1t is, of course. o
luxury for the rich.
The internal temperature of trees
has been investigated in Belgium bv
w. Prinz, who finds that, as a rule,
large tree is warmer than the air in
winter, and little colder than the air
n summer. The mean annual tenn.
'erature OF a tree is practically the
anne as that of the surrounding air.
nut the monthly means differ by sew.
raj degrees. Heat changes are trans
nitted slowly to the heat of a tree.
he temperature of the interior differ
ng sometimes as much as 80 degrees
rom that of the air. When the air
emperature is below freezing point
he temperature of the tree appears to
emain just above the freezing point of
IS sap. snd in the hot days of summer
he internal temperature was not
nown to vary more than degrees
rom SO degrees.