Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-06-08
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

4 relation has been discovered lv
Professor Dolbear and Carl A. aud
Edward A. Bessey between the chirp-
ing of crickets and the temperature,
the chirps increasing as frequently as
the temperature rises. The Besseys
relate, in the American Naturalist that
when, one cool evening, a cricket was
caught and brought into warm room,
it began in few minutes to chirp
nearly twice as rapidly as the out-of-
door crickets, and that it's rate very
nearly conformed to the observed rate
maintained other evenings out of doors
under the same temperature condi.
lions.
The tempering of steel with uni
form results is feat hardly to be
achieved by the most expert artisan.
A German inventor has devised pro-
cess for accurately obtaining de-
gree of hardness, the variations being
affected by changes in the liquid used,
and depending on the fact that graded
results may be produced by the use of
milk in varying forms and dilutions-
that is, by fresh and SKINNED milk,
sweet and sour whey, fresh and cid
buttermilk, and different mixtures
with water. The various stages Of
acidification of milk are also said to
give all the effects of hardening in oil
and other fat mixtures.
In Japan grows the mangosteen,
most delicious of all fruits, if travel
ers' tastes be true. Stay -at.homss
can never test it, for it will never bear
transportation. 1t is, outwardly,
hard, round fruit, the size of peaLh,
and the rind the same color and thick
ness of q green walnut, and in this
brown husk lie six or eight segments
of creamy white pulp. The little seq
ments are easily separated, and trans
ferred to the mouth, melt away, the
pulp being as soft and fine as Gus
tard. The mangosteen' delicate pulp
tastes, as all eulogists say. like straw
berries, peaches, bananas and oranges
all at once; a slight tartness is veiled
in these delicious fayors, and it is
never cloyingly sweet
An ingenious Frenchman has in
vented a fishing gun with which he
expects to revolutionize this ancient
sport The device combines at the
same time the pleasure and excitement
of shooting and angling, SO the inven-
tor says. The weapon is made in the
form of a gun with long iron barrel.
hn 10 l.
means of apowerful steel spring. 1t
is not bullet, but three-pronged
spear with cruel barbs and handle
swenty-eight inches long. The theory
Of the new weapon is that the fisher
man will be able to harpoon the fish
by hitting it with his spear I he
ammunition" is connected to the gun
by a stout string and the fish can be
lowed ashore after each discharge.
Texas journals describe what is de-
,lared to be one of the most perfect
Of antidotes extaIt for the various
forms of the opium habit. The plant
is known by the name of husa, and is
of dull, whitish green color, and
about two or three inches long; it has
at it's summit ball-like white forma-
lion, and where the flower should be
this is hard, slightly lobuated, it's
resemblance to a small caulifower
being quite marked. 1t grows in
,lumps i'll moist. shady places, particu-
Iarly on the hunmocks at the roots of
cabbage palms, and is of low order
Of plants, above the mosses. It's use
is asserted to be not only an antidote
for narcotic poisons, bat likewise for
all snake bites. stings of insects, etc.
DR.. McGregor describes it as the mcst
diffusible OF stimulants, acting imme-
diately, and, having subjected the
plant to various tests, pronounces it
an infallible cure for the opium habit
taking the piece of opium or morphine.
1t is sedative, not narcotic.
Trees That Grow Bread.
of =.