Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1916 — SCRAPS [ARTICLE]

SCRAPS

Swine provided 60 per cent of the total meat consumed in the German empire last year. William G. Sharp, 1 the American ambassador to France, made a fortune from the manufacture of chemicals. A Virginian has invented a handtruck that enables one man to pick up and move objects weighing 1,000 pounds or more. Italians maintain wireless telephone communications between Rome and Tripoli, a distance of 600 miles ma inly over wafer. in India eyeglasses of a greenish line have been, found to afford bet-tc-r protection from the sun than either blue or gray. According io the British consul at Bordeaux each French soldier at the front has an allowance of one pint of wine a day. Russia is holding at I’etrograd an exposition featured by a competition of inventions and appliances in the manufacture Of artificial limbs. Sound travels through dry air at the rate of 60 feet a second; through water at 240 feet a second, and in steel wire at 17,130 feet a second. Spain exported 7 78,506 hectoliters of wine to France in the first five

months of 101 l, as compared to 24,588 hectoliters in the name period in 1015. The law in Switzerland protecting rare plants is so strict that to be found in possession of specimens illegitimately collected is a penal offense. The largest volcano crater in the world is in Asosan, in southern Japan. It measures 14 miles across one way and more than 10 miles the other. On March 15 there were in the ice outside of Archangel, Russia', no fewer than 100 ships. The port was frozen up last winter much earlier than usual. Count Zeppelin has given orders that oil his death his body shall be conveyed to its last resting place in one of the machines with which his name is associated.

Figures compiled by the Italian government show that the world produced 4,000,000,000 bushels of wheat last year, an increase of 80 ifi--000,000 bushels over the year before. . ’■ • X. ' A Vienna physician having discovered that a remedy for infectious intestinal disorders can be produced from red cabbages, a factory lor Us production is being built. To lessen the smoke and gas in tunnels, Swiss railroads are equipping their locomotive stacks with lids to be closed when a tunnel is entered, steam being exhauted beneath the engines. The 10 countries with the largest populatiops are, in the order named, China, India, Russia, the United | States, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Austria.

Silver disks or bank coins maimfact tired in the United States will be received at the national mint of Peru from individuals holding government permits, and will be coined into pieces valued at one sol each (48,t> cents), up to the, amount of ol)0,000 sols. ,

A flash of lightning lights up the ground for one-millionth of a second, yet it seems to us to last bver so niuch longer. What happens is t hat the impression, remains in the retina of the eye for about oneeighth of a second, or 1 2 4,000 times longer than the flash lasts. A diving suit made of aluminum alloy is one of the latest inventions. It is said that by means of this suit divers can do salvage work at extraordinary depths.' They have, for example, already used the new armor at a depth of 212 feet, and there are possibilities of deeper descents.

The discovery of a fibrous asbestos in considerable quantities in rock formations in the Transvaal, Africa, has been reported. The fibers, which are mostly golden brown in color, are said to be of greater length th’an any mineral fibers known before and of good strength for weaving.

The Nichols medal, awarded by the New York section of the American Phemical society for the best original contribution to the publication of the society during the year 1915, was conferred on Dr. Claude Silbert Hudson the United States bureau of chemisft’-y in recognition of his research in the field of organic chemistry. A farmer has built a cylindrical barn, 73 feet in diameter and 74 feet high. With the exception of the domelike roof, which is of *.vood, it is made entirely of concrete. There are no posts, beams or other supports. It consists of a huge chamber below and a loft above which has a storage space for 300 tors of hay. The 'Virginia legislature has had some warm debates over a bill requiring all dogs more than six months old to be shut up at night, but noth-

ing about making .a dog shut up after one has got him shut up, a matter which is sometimes on bright moonlight nights, for instance, quite outside the range of human legislation.—Springfield Republican. "The River Parana,” declares the prospectus of a real estate agent in Parana, Brazil, “is the most watery in the state, one of the most extended jni the world, it is navigable until to this state for ships of great profoundness; it is also suffioently fishful.'’ This same cheerful chap it is who further asseverates that “the vegetable reign is exeessfully represented in resinous, oily and gumr.ious plants." The story is told that General Joe Wheeler, who was so prominent in the Spahish-American war and who as a boy had serve/f in the civil war on the southern side, once suffered a remarkable lapse of memory during a -charge in Cuba, dashing up a hill with his troops, and shouting, “Give the Yankees the devil, boys,” greatly astonishing those who did rot happen to understand the true state of affairs.

The hardness of water is measured by degrees. When a gallon contains one grain of lime it is said to have one degree of hardness. When soap is used with hard water, about two aii'i one-half ounces of it to each 100 gallons of water must be used for each degree of hardness, just to overcome hardness. It combines with the lime, forming a mineral product, and not until enough soap has been dissolved to overcome all trie hardness does the soap do any good for cleansing purposes. The celebrated Fragonard panels of the Morgan collection, lately sold to a dealer for, it is believed, sl,000,000, had their inception, it is said, in the lavish expenditures of the Countess du Barry. They were designed for her chauteau but never adorned it, owing to a dispute between the painter and the king’s favorite. Mine, du Barry, notwithstanding her lowly origin, was extremely critical in matters of. art, and was dissatisfied with these pictures, which are among the greatest prizes of the connoisseurs of today,