The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1895-06-06
fsCieNCE AND INDUSTRY,

The Investigations of Weber have
shown that the curliness of hair varies
with its fatness The iatter it is the
more it curls. Curling irons hatten the
hair.
The total length of railroad in
Iowa is s,490 miles. The number of
employees in the state is 30, 30s, falling
off of nearly 1000 from the previous
year. The average yearly compensa-
ton has fallen from 1891 to 1853. the
latter figure being lower than that for
any year since 1888.
To prevent potato eyes from shoot
ing. one of the chief obstacles in pre-
serving the vegetables, NJ. Schraiban,
of the French Institut Agronome,
treats them with two per cent. solu-
ton of sulphuric acid. The potatoes
are kept in this for twelve hours and
then dried; this kills the power of
termination and the acid used can do
no harm, as it does not penetrate the
skin, and the amount is less than that
contained in settler water.
The Albany railway was one of the
first street railroads of the country to
adopt the freight car service. The
cars were put on the road last Sep
TENDER and run over the line between
Albany and Troy, distance of seven
miles. There is storage warehouse
at each end of the line. into which the
cars run. The freight business is
growing, and there is every reason to
suppose that it will be very profit
able branch of the service. Trips are
made during the day every two hours,
with couple of extra trips between
times. The two competing steam lines
have been forced to reduce their
fl eight and passenger rates.
On some large freight engines re-
Gently constructed for the Central
Pacific by the Schenectady locomotive
works there is novel continuance, in
tended for supplying sufficient air to
make the airbrakes useful at all times
when descending steep hills. As all
engineers well know, the constant APP
plication of the brakes is apt to exhaust
the air in the airdrum, and then, unless
the handbrakes are in good condition.
an accident of a terrible nature is I'M
avoidable. The contrivance used on
these engines is what is known as the
Sweeny auxiliary pipe, and by its use
the reversed movement of the piston
can be made to pump air into the main
drum from the cylinders in such guam
titles that the brakes can be utilized at
any time, and the full service applied
if necessary.
Cats can get along perfectly well
without stomachs. according to expert
ments recorded in the Archives de
Physiologie. In one cat, which died
forty-eight hours after its stomach had
been cut out. the oesophagus was found
to have been completely united with
the intestine. Another cat, which
weighed four pounds when it lost its
stomach. was alive and well and
weighed four pounds and half three
months and half after the opera ton.
1t found difficulty in digesting pure
milk. but got along nicely when the
milk was mixed with yolk of egg and
rice, and ate cooked meat. cheese and
a PURGE Of potatoes. This proves that
all three classes of food, albuminoids
fats and farinaceous substances, are
digested by the agastric cat. AS it had
previously been proved that dogs can
do without stomachs, the next step
would seem to be the production of
agastric man.
Production of Acetylene -Acety-
lene, the most powerful illuminant of
the hydrocarbons, can now be pro-
duced on a commercial scale, says
Prof. Lewes in a paper read before the
Society of Arts. 1t is a colorless gas
with an intensely penetrating smell
resembling garlic. so that the smallest
leakage would be quickly detected.
Five cubic feet of the gas will give a
light equal to two hundred and forty
candles for an hour. 1t is made by mix
ing forty parts by weight of finely
ground chalk or lime with twenty-four
parts by weight of any form of pow
dered carbon in an electric furnace and
adding water; the product is lime and
calcic carbide a pound of which will
yield Sd cubic feet of acetylene. The
carbide can be made for twenty dollars
a ton: the gas would cost about dollar
and sixty cents Thousand feet but its
illumina ting power would make its cost
equal to coal gas at twelve cents 3
thn,-co