At the trial of the 81-ton gun, at Woolwich Arsenal, a 1,250-pound ball was fired with a charge of 170 pounds of powder. This shot penetrated 45 feet of sand, and the recoil of the gun was 2312 feet. A second shot was fired with a charge of 190 pounds. The penetration-distance was now over 50 feet, and the recoil 32 feet. It is intended gradually to increase the charge to 300 pounds.
A State Archæological Association has been formed in Ohio to promote investigation of the mounds and earthworks of the State, to collect facts, descriptions, relics, and other evidences of the prehistoric races, and to awaken an interest in the general subject of archæology. The library and cabinet of the Association will be established in the State-House, at Columbus, provided the State furnish suitable accommodations free of cost. The meetings will be held annually in the various cities of Ohio, and a yearly bulletin will be published. The first annual meeting will be held at Newark, Licking County, on Tuesday, September 5, 1876.
A quarter of a million of young salmon, according to a writer in Forest and Stream, have been placed in the Truckee River, which flows into Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and they are doing well.
A vein of nickel has been discovered in New Caledonia, extending across the entire island, from east to west. There are also in New Caledonia copper-mines of great richness. The gold-mines, of which much was expected a few years ago, have so far yielded insignificant results.
The death-rate of some English towns is very high. Thus, while the death-rate for England and Wales generally is 22.2 per 1,000, in Bristol it is 26.9, in Leeds, 28.7, in Manchester, 32.1, and in Liverpool, 35.9. Of children under five years of age, 39 per 1,000 die annually in country districts, while in towns the ratio is 103 per 1,000.
A commission has been appointed by the British Government, to investigate the subject of the spontaneous combustion of coal on shipboard. Persons having any facts on the subject of the spontaneous combustion of coal, under any circumstances, are requested to communicate the same to H. S. Poole, Charlottetown, Nova Scotia, Inspector of Mines.
Microscopic examination of the muscular tissue of a wild-boar lately shot in the forests of Saxony showed it to be full of trichinæ. This is the first case in which this parasite has been found in the wild-boar, it having been the general belief that only domesticated swine were affected.
By substituting atomized water or spray for steam in sulphuric-acid manufacture, Sprengel not only effects a saving of fuel, but also saves 612 per cent. of pyrites and 15 per cent. of nitre.
An adequate punishment for those human brutes who vent their despicable passions in murderous assaults on women and children is suggested by the authors of "The Unseen Universe." "It is probable," they write, "that, before many years have passed, electricity will be called upon by an enlightened legislature to produce absolutely indescribable torture, thrilling through every fibre of such miscreants."
A process for brightening iron is described as follows in a German periodical: The articles to be brightened are, when taken from the forge, placed in dilute sulphuric acid (1 to 20), and then washed with water and dried with sawdust. They are then dipped for a second or so in nitrous acid, washed carefully, and rubbed clean. Iron thus treated acquires a bright surface, having a white glance.
They are trying to introduce bumblebees into New Zealand, for the purpose of aiding in the fertilization of the common clover. This office the common bee is unable to discharge, its proboscis being too short to reach down to the pollen of the flower.
A university, to be founded at Tomsk, Siberia, by the Russian Government, will at first consist of only two Faculties, law and medicine. Siberia at present is very ill supplied with doctors, there being only 55 for a population of 6,000,000, inhabiting a territory as large as all Europe.
Hofmann's process for preparing vanilla from the wood of the pine has been patented, and will be generally applied in paper-mills which use wood-pulp for the purposes of their manufacture.
It is stated in the Lancet that female medical missionaries are now laboring very successfully in various parts of India. The Maharajah of Vezianagram has engaged an American lady to open a dispensary for women at Benares, and Sir Salar Jung has done the same thing in Hyderabad.
Bath bricks are made from the deposits of the river Barrett, at Bridgewater, Somersetshire. Nowhere else is a similar deposit found, so that Bridgewater supplies the world. The annual import into the United States is about 240,000 bricks.
The State of Minnesota produced last year 28,000,000 bushels of wheat, 15,000,000 of oats, and 12,000,000 of Indian-corn.
