Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-01-04

new method for overcoming sleep
lessness has been suggested by Pro.
fessor j. H. Baldwin. 1t consists in
trying to picture another person as
asleep. The more clearly the other
persons sleep is pictured, the stronger
becomes the subjective feeling of drow.
siness.
Professor Nussbaum of Hanover
claims that the plastering of walls
seriously affects the acoustic properties
OF room. The admixture of sand
with plaster spoils the reverberation of
tones. The best results are obtained
by using pure gypsum that has been
heated to white heat.
The sponge which grows either on
rocks or directly upon sandy bottom
is encased in a jet black membrane.
When the sponge grows in caves or
under rocks away from the sun the
membrane is pale in color, but it
always is full of thick milky fluid.
AS the sponge is torn by hand or cut
from its roots the diver gives the men,
brane squeeze that ~sts it, the
milk being scattered ove, tire bottom.
The milk is vile smelling and pro-
duces an eruption wherever it touches
the human flesh, but the operation of
scattering the milk is considered very
necessary and also a Divers duty,
since the fishers believe that it holds
the seed of the sponge.
A new textile plant is being expert
mented with in Russia, says United
States Consul Atwell of Roubaix.
This is the "Apocynum venetum," a
bush about six feet high yielding
silken fibre. 1t grows in Europe,
Siberia, Asia Minor, North of India,
Manchuria and Japan, and it has long
been used by the Turcomans in the
manufacture of cords and woven goods.
1t has never been cultivated, and grows
best in land under water for part of
and its cultivation would require no
care. In 1895, the Russian govern
ment began to use it for bank note
paper, and the results we're SO excel.
lent that the plant has since been cul"
tivated at Poltava.
In England, as is we'll known, the
resources of the mining engineer are
often taxed to their utmost in the en-
deavor to work coal and iron mines on
a paying basis. The latest instance
Of this is afforded at the Hodbarrow
mines in mberland, where it is pro-
posed to build large sea embank-
ment, to keep the sea out of the
workings of the mines. Ten years
ago a wall was built, costing more
than $500, 600. but the proposed work
and will be $3.50 yards (3.S miles, in
length, enclosing large tract of land,
under which the iron mines will be
worked. The ore here is a rich one,
and wfll worth the enormous outlay
of money required, as it has been
| proved to exist in vast quantities.
The estimated cost of the new work is
81, 800, 600.
Perhaps nothing so we'll illustrates
the accuracy of modern astronomy as
the recent Investigations into the vari
alton CT latitude. Professor Charles
r. Doolittle, director OF the Flower
obsery atory of the University of Penn
sylvania, announces that the result of
long series of individual determine
tions shows that the latitude of Phila
delphia varies about forty feet an
nually. That such a small change can
1,a rfoi i,,l nf he
triumphs of science. The first sus-
picion that there was systematic va
! ration in latitude was aroused by GER
tain observations made at Berlin in
1SS4-S5. This result was subsequently
confirmed by invest itions set on foot
in various parts of Europe, as we'll as
Honolulu and Cordova. DR.. S. G.
Chandler has shown that the matter
can be explained by supposing the
earth's axis to revolve in an exceed
ingly small elipse about its mean po-
sition, the period of revolution being
about APT days. The greatest posi-
BILE change in the position of the pole
is not more than twenty yards, so that
it will lie seen that no very startling
results are likely to follow the discov-
cry. 1t is Just possible, however,
that the matter may be developed into
something or importance in the case
of boundary lines which are fixed by
latitude determinations. The most
striking fact is the emphasis on the
point that nothing known to astron-
omy is fixed or immoyable, not even
the position of the -arth's axis from
year to year.