Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1895 — Current Condensations. [ARTICLE]

Current Condensations.

The expenditure of England for drinks is estimated at $900,000,000 a year. At Buluwayo a company libs been formed to explore the ancient ruins in Mashonaland for treasure. The system of canals contemplated by Russia will have a total length of 1,000 miles and will unite the Baltic and Black Seas. A petrified frog found in an Elmira, N. Y., stone quarry in 1883 was two feet eight inches In length and weighed over 100 pounds. Above Mannheim the Rhine is to be ipade navigable as far as Strasburg. As a canal will be inadequate, important changes must be made in the river bed. During the current autumn a monument is to be unveiled at Osteel; in East Friesland, in memory of the discoverers of the sun’s spots, David and Johann Fabricius. An epidemic broke out among the silk worms of Spain during the middle of this century, which for a time threatened to destroy the entire European silk culture. For swearing in members in the House of Commons the revised version of tlie Bible is used for Protestants, the Douai version for Catholics and a copy in Hebrew for Jews. During the past year American defaulters and embezzlers got away with over $30,000,000, and within eleven years the amount thus appropriated foots up over $130,000,000. A German firm has just brought out a glove for gentlemen, the specialty of which is that a small mirror, about the size of a half dollar, is inserted in the palm of the baud. There is talk in London of the invention of a marvelous electric battery, iu which zinc is discarded for a material costing only one-twentieth as much, and polarization made needless. The new motor is said to cost but 8 cents per horse power per hour.

Jewsharps are made principally in Boccorio, the seat of the industry since the sixteenth century. A good workman can make seven dozen in a day, and simple as the little instruments are, no less than twenty tools are employed in their manufacture, Including anvil, hammer, tongs, and so on. There are, moreover, twenty-four distinct operations. A rather novel feature was performed recently at the Diamond Ice Company’s works iu Newport A plate of ice was stood on edge Just as it was taken out of the tank where it had been frozen, and behind this some half a dozen persons, interested in the company, took their positions, while on the other side a photographer posed his camera and made an exposure. The features could be seen so distinctly through the Ice that there is little question as'to the success of the operation. In tlie neighborhood of Riley, Kan., is an ordinary drilled well about 130 feet deep, put down several years ago. A peculiar roaring sound comes from the well, and is much louder at certain periods than at others. On removing tlie flat rock that covers it, one Is met by a whiff of ice cold air, which rushes out with such velocity that a knotted handkerchief or piece of cornstalk Is thrown to the height of several feet Almost every winter water freezes in it to a depth of about forty feet and the piping has been buret a number of times by freezing at that depth.