The Republican., 1895-02-21
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

LOIo hcIVLu COHJeHuS UHdC CUe
earth might be white hot two thousand
feet below the surface, or as cold as ice
fifty feet below, without changing our
present climate. He attributes the in
tensely hot climate of an earlier age to
greater heat of the sun.
"A. NJ. Stimson, purchasing agent of
the Big Four, is in the market for 75O,-
900 cross-ties. AS far as possible the
company will purchase these ties from
points on their lines to help such sec
tions. On the Martinsville division it
has purchased 80, 900 and on the Cairo
division 800, 900.
Twenty-Five years ago the value of
the bananas exported from Jamaica
was practically nothing; last year it
was oyer two millions of dollars, ex-
ceediDg that of the exports of sugar
rum, coffee, or dye-woods. The cult
vation of the banana trees has made it
possible to grow other plants under
their shade and to increase the pro-
duction of coffee, cocoa, oranges and
spices
The psychological factors in dis
more the methods of propagation of
infectious disorders are studied. Grief
and fear are believed to have a po-
tency in lowering the physical ''condi-
tion" similar to that produced by chill,
fatigue, inanition, loss of blood or sec
tion of a nerve; and this opens the door
for the entrance of those ubiquitous
agencies of evil, the bacilli
Aluminium has the property, when
used as pencil, of leaving an indelible
mark on glass or any other substance
having a siliceous base. A deposition
of the metal takes place, and while
this may be removed by a suita BILE acid
wash, the mark itself cannot be re-
moved by rubbing or washing. This
property is susceptible of a variety of
practical applications in decorating
glass.
M Tissander, the French physicist
has succeeded in constructing an appa-
ratus for measuring minute intervals
of time, which consists of a spring
tuned to vibrate five hundred times
second, and carrying at its free end
needle point that bears against re-
volving disk. On this disk is carried
sensitized Photographic plate, upon
which, by means of a magnesium light,
the path of the vibrating spring is
traced.
The rapidity with which certain
species of insects move is something
truly astonishing. The common house
fly is known to make 600 strokes per
second with his wings and the dragon
fly 100. In the case of the fly the 600
strokes cause an advance movement
of twenty-seven feet. These are figures
on ordinary flight and it is believed
that the fly is capable of increasing
both the strokes and advance move
ment sevenfold.
1t is calculated that the nearest ex-
ternal universe is so far distant from
our system that light from it, travel
ing at the rate of 1856, OOO miles a Sec
ond, would take nearly ninety million
years to reach us. This calculation
would seem to interfere somewhat
with the old-time theory of creative
week of six days of twenty-four hours
each-unless we assume that the light
from these stars was set in space along
with the stars themselves.
1t has been know that in many
early-blooming trees the stamens can
be excited to growth by much lower
temperature than will excite the pistil.
A few warm winter days will SO often
advance the stamens in plum flowers
that the pollen disappears before the
pistil is receptive. Plum crops often
partially fail for lack of the necessary
fertilization. Practical men have long
since discovered that south aspect is
not as good for fruit trees as any of the
others, without knowing the real rea-
son.