The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-01-11
OF GENERAL INTEREST.

Fans came from the east during
the crusades, being Brought back by
returning knights as presents for their
friends. a French nobleman brought
the first ostrich fan to Paris about
HOO
"A writer in La Medicine Modern
asserts that sedentary occupations pre-
dispose to tuberculosis more than any
others. Italian and English statistics
show, he says, that there are four hun
dred and ffty-nine deaths per one
thousand from this disease among stu
dents, seminarians and young clergy
men; while farmers, boatmen and
mountaineers enjoy almost complete
immunity from it.
AT Bristol a statue of Edmund
Burke, who represented the borough
from 1774 to 1850, has just been I'M
yelled with great ceremony, the earl
of Rosebery delivering the Grafton.
The statue is the work of a Bristol
sculptor, Mr., Thomas, and on the base
is sentence from Burl1e's last speech
to the electors of Bristol: II wish to
be a member of parliament, to have my
share of doing good and resisting evil. "
If congress undertakes legislation
to protect postmasters from boycott
ting, doubtless postmasters in subur-
ban districts will ask for consideration
in any scheme of relief. Commuters
must bring daily thousands of letters
to be posted in New York, and the con-
sequent loss of revenue to suburban
post offices must, in the course of Il
year, amount to n large sum. Many
suburban office would be advanced in
class could it receive all the postal
business of the inhabitants within its
jurisdiction.
Certain sponges (cliona) bore into
shells, especially those of the oyster,
finally causing them to crumble to
pieces. On the American coast, cliona
sulphurea not only destroys the shells
of oysters, mussels and scallops, but
has even been known to penetrate one
or two inches into hard marble. Ithas
been uncertain whether this effect is
mechanical or due to the solvent effect
of some acid, but VI. Latellier has
lately shown the French academy that
a purely mechanical action suffices.-
London Invention.
A ship canal from Bordeaux to Mar
bonnie, connecting the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean, IS one of the coming
public enterprises. The distance is
three hundred and twenty miles, and
the breadth in one hundred and forty
four feet at the narrowest, and two
hundred and fifteen feet at the widest
points, with an average depth of about
thirty feet. There will be twenty-five
locks, with fall from twenty to sixty
feet. In order to avoid delays and
give ample space for navigation, there
will be, at intervals of about eight
miles, sidings three-quarters of a mile
long. The locks will be eighty feet
wide and six hundred and fifty-ive
feet long. The craft using this canal
will be towed by fixed engines. The
cost Of the canal is estimated at one
hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
Diamond powder and chips, and even
the finest dust, are of great value in
the mechanical arts. Brazilian dia-
monds are now put to novel and in
teresting use. \ thin disk of steel,
seven feet in diameter, has spaces at
intervals of about one and One-half
inches. These spaces are filed in with
pieces of steel that exactly fit, and
into these are set the diamonds fixed
in countersunk screw-heads. They are
in groups of eight, and are
so placed that they do not follow one
exactly after the other in the cut, but
each line takes its own course. This
circular saw is used for cutting up
blocks of stone, and so efficient is it
that in less than two and one-half
years it has cut out four hundred and
twenty thousand square feet of stone,
at a cost of Il trifle less than two cents
n square foot. in this time it has been
necessary to renew twenty of the
teeth, the average cost of which has
been about two dollars per tooth.