Mr. James Weir tells of a spider which stretched its web in the
division between two parts of a sawmill, where the lower fastenings of
the structure were frequently broken by the repeated passing of lumber
through. Discovering the situation, the insect gave up the use of guy
threads, and, finding a nail, wove it into the lower edge of its web,
so that it should operate as a sinker to keep the web stretched.
* * * * *
N. G. Johnson, of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, telling
the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science the story of
his fight with the pea louse, represented that the pea raisers in his
State had lost this year more than three million dollars by the ravages
of this insect. A parasite had been discovered which practically
annihilated the pest, but the discovery was not made in time to save
the crops in some parts of the State from destruction.
* * * * *
The American Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science,
after hearing the account of the work of the Gypsy Moth Commission
of Massachusetts, which has spent more than a million and a half of
dollars in trying to exterminate the mischievous insect, approved the
action of the Massachusetts Legislature in maintaining the commission,
and requested that the work be kept up for a short time longer. This
was because it was represented that the moth was now confined to a
limited area, and could be easily exterminated by the expenditure of a
small amount more of money.
* * * * *
The history of science has sustained a great loss by the burning of
most of the relics which had been collected for the Volta Centenary
Exhibition at Como, Italy. Only a few things were saved, comprising a
sword presented by Napoleon Bonaparte to Volta, a cast of the skull of
the great electrician, his watch, and a few personal relics. On the
other hand, his books and manuscripts, his collection of batteries,
the only authentic portrait of him, and his will, were destroyed.
Nevertheless, the celebration was not stopped. The fire was attributed
to the fusing of some electric wires.
* * * * *
An example of patient industry is the sorting of hogs’ bristles as
it is carried on at Tientsin, China. Each one of the hairs of the
six hundred thousand kilogrammes exported from that place in 1897
had to be picked out, measured, and placed in the bundle of hairs of
corresponding length; and the different lengths by which the hairs are
sorted are very numerous.
* * * * *
It is stated by M. Léon Vaillant that the late M. A. d’Abbadie had
and used an effective remedy against the bites of insects and the
infections they bring by fumigating the entire body with sulphur. For
this purpose he covered the unclothed body with a suitable envelope,
under which the sulphur was burned. The remedy was communicated to M.
d’Abbadie by a hippopotamus hunter who had, by using it, escaped all
the diseases incident to the swamps to which he had to resort.
* * * * *
The Gregorian Calendar is to be adopted by the Russian Government on
January 1, 1901, or at the beginning of the new century.
* * * * *
The following figures, from the Engineering and Mining Journal, are of
interest as showing the enormous quantity of iron and steel which was
manufactured in 1898, and the leading position which the United States
has already assumed in the industry: