Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1881 — Bits of Science. [ARTICLE]

Bits of Science.

Most persons will be rathei surprised to know that a very fair quality of sugar Is made from rags. A very simple and light fire escape has been invented. It Is like a small table, and is fixed under a window. In cases of fire the table is turned over the window sill aad forms a bracket with a light iron ladder hanging from it. It is an English invention. A fragment of prehistoric garment with a piece of wood attached has been found in a deposit of salt in Nevada. It appeared to have been knit by hand from the inner fiber of a tree. A similar fragment was once found In Louisiana among the bones of the mastodoD, which proved its great antiquity. An American watchmaker has constructed a miniature steam engine which is the smallest one in the world. It can be covered entirely by an ordinery thimble, aud vet it consists of 145 pieces, connected l y 102 screws. Three drops of water will fill the boiler, and the entire weight is only one grain. Professor Flower, a well-known anatomist, states that the largest normal skull he ever measured was 2,075 cubic cen it meters. The Laplanders and Esquimaux, though very small people, have unusually large skulls. The average measurement of the English skull of tbe lower grades shows J,642 cubic centimeters.

In 1870 the total coal production of the world was 193,970,083 tons; in 1880 It was 291,468.000, an iucrease of 100.467,318 tons, or 5 percent. Tabiog the growth of ihe coal industry as a measure of a Nation’s general industrial progress, Russia makes a very good showing, the percentage of coal output there haviug increased 275 per cent., and Spain makes a poor appearance, the percentage of increase being only 36 percent. It is claimed by Prof. Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, that a discovery of his applied to tiie construction of lake, river, or ocean going ve-sois is likely to cause a revolution in naval aichiteciure. The delailsare given only in (lie most general terms. A model embodying the new principles is in course of construction at Geneva, and when it is tried on the lake it will be seen whether the the Processor has not l»een too sanguine. He expects that it will attain a high rate of speed and glide over the water without cutting it, and so diminishing resistance. Many, if not most, people have supposed, or, rather ladieved that the method of teaching deaf mutes to speak hail been quite a modern invention, but every one is uot of that opinion. A congress on the education of the deaf and dumb was lately opened at Bordeaux and during the sittings M. Claveau published a series of articles iu which he endeavored to prove that the art of teachiug the dumb to speak is as old as tho latter part of the ninth century; that it was invented and practiced by St. John, of Beverley, Archbishop of York, England, and that it was explained In the writings of the Venerable Bede.