Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1910 — Science AND Invention [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Science AND Invention

Alum, according to Adele M. Field, is a perfect preventive of the ravages of moths among woolens. While living In ChiDa she gave this method of protecting clothing a thorough test. The articles should be soaked In a saturated solution of alum for several hours. The fabric is not injured and the colors are not changed. The alum does not evaporate, and the articles thus treated remain moth-proof for years. It is suggested that a pound of crude alum in four quarts of water would make an effective solution for employment by manufacturers of woolen cloth, rugs and carpets. The debt of Industry to science has often, and very properly, been proclaimed; but now the reverse is announced. The National Electric Lamp Association has established at Cleveland a physical laboratory, which the director, Dr. E. P. Hyde, declares has for its object the development of science rather than the improvement of an industrial commodity. In this respect it differs from the many laboratories that have in recent years been established in connection with large manufacturing concerns. Among the objects of research will be the laws of radiation and the radiant properties of matter, and the effects of light and its attendant phenomena on the eye, the skin, and microscopic organisms. A corps of investigators is being formed. A female alligator four and a half feet long, species Alligator Mlsslsslppiensis, was recently captured in central Oklahoma, in a bayou of the South Canadian River. H. H. Lane, of the University of Oklahoma, believes that the animal had traveled up the Arkansas River to the mouth of the Canadian, and thence to Ihe point where it was found, a distance of some 350 or 400 miles west of the ArkansasOklahoma State line. The Canadian River is not navigable, and during most of the year is only a small meandering creek In a wide valley. The alligator had been in the neighborhood at least three years before Its capture. Its skeleton is now in the university museum, where the lone traveler is also commemorated by a life-like model. There are three black fox farms near Atherton, Prince Edward’s Island, where these animals are raised for their skins. These farms contain twenty, twenty-five and thirty foxes respectively. The skins are sold in London at prices ranging from SSOO to SI,BOO each, according to quality. The fur is used for ornamenting the cloaks of royalty, as it is the only fur to which gold will cling. One farm is on an island, another in a rough, broken woods country, where the animals are confined by heavy woven-wire netting. The wire Is set in the ground two or three feet, in order to keep the foxes from burrowing under, and is about eight feet high above ground, with a curve inwardly at thq top of each post of another three or four feet of wire, sh order to keep them from climbing over the fence. They sleep in the open the year round, in hollow trees and in hollow logs. They are fed principally on oats and milk and bread and milk, with a small quantity of cooked meat once a day at noon, the amount of meat being lessened during the summer. These animals are very wild, and no one can get near—them except the keeper and he only when he brings them food.