i2                 THE WISCON



SIN FARMER.



SCIENCE, ART, STATISTICS.



    P trlarun-It VWe as a PuL
  Few but those who have visited Franee, can
form any idea of the high price of fuel in that
country, or of the vast variety of methods
whieh re employed to economize this necessa-
ry of life. Patents, without number, have
been granted in France for the manufacture of
"artificial fueL"  In order to explain this
subjeet more thoroughly, we subjoin one or two
of the processes which are largely employed
not only in Europe, but also among the hall
civilized Orientals.
  In the neighborhood of the Caspian sea,
where petroleum springs are abundant, the in-
habitants manufacture a fuel by impregnating
clay with the combustible fluid; the clods are
afterwards burned on an ordinary hearth. The
Norwegians have long economized the sawdust
of their mills by incorporating it with a little
clay and tar, moulding it into ths form of
bricks. Of late years, in England, much at-
tention has been given to artificial fuel in many
districts, but not with much success, owing to
the want of a suitable combustible, which pe-
troleum is, above all others, best adapted to
supply. In France, charcoal is prepared from
the refuse of the charcoal furnaces, by mixing
it with charred peat or spent tar, and then
adding tar or pitch. The materials are ground
together and subjected to heat in close vessels,
to expel volatile gases.  From seven to nine
gallons of tar are mixed with two hundred
weight of charcoal powder.
  In rural districts, where common fuel is oft-
en very expensive, gas, manufactured in port-
able works, would be largely used for culinary
purposes, as it now is where the supply of gas
is constant and cheap. But there is no neces-
sity to convert petroleum in-o gas, in order to
use it * fueL Stoves have been constructed
for the combustion of this substance without
the use of a glass chimney, and without the
produeticn of smoke. It will necessarily from
its cheapness, supersede alcohol, which is com-
monly used as fuel for cooking purposes during
the summer months. And we may soon look
for its adoption as fuel for the generation of
steam in our ocean steamers, where economy
in bulk and weight is so great a desideratum.
-Phila. Coal Oil Circular.

  Tim LowzST RACE.-Prof. Owen has given
it as his opinion that the lowest specimens of
humaniiy which the world affords are the An-
damans, who inhabit the Andaman Islands, in
the Bay of Bengal. They are of diminutive
stature, very slander limbs and jet black.
They have no utensils which will resist fire,
and they cannot be induced to confer with
strangers. The language of this people has
not the least affinity with any other known.



  pr aud Cloth dis of ludtan COn Nuska.
  The United States Patent Office has received
an application from Vienna, Austia, for a pat
ent on "improved methods of manufacturing
the products of the maize plant." The invent-
or, Dr. Alois Ritter Auer Yon Welsbach, is a
distinguished scientific man.  He forwards
samples of fibre, yarn, linen cloth, and paper
of five varieties, in its natural color and bleach-
ed. The Washington correspondent of the
Cincinnati Gazette has examined these samples
and writes concerning them as follows:
  "The corn husk paper is remarkably good.
Some of the qualities forwarded are fine trac-
ing paper, which, though exceedingly thin, has
nevertheless a firm, solid body, and an excel-
lent surface.  From that the qualities range
down to the coarsest wrapping papers, which
certainly seem much stouter and tougher than
corresponding grades of straw wrapping pa-
pers, and, it is claimed, it can be produced at
greatly reduced cost. Some of the sheets are
an excellent article of book printing paper,
others would almost pass for parchment. The
inventor's own account of the various steps to-
ward his discovery, is printed handsomely on
a large sheet of the corn husk paper, in a style
which it would puzzle our printers, with their
best presses and papers, to surpass.
  "1 The corn husk yarn and cloth are not near-
ly as good in their way as the specimens of
paper. The yam, however, is about equal to
some of the old-fashioned tow yam with which
our granmothers in this country were familiar,
and the cloth is a trifle coarser and less firmly
woven than the coarsest tow cloth. For many
purposes for which coarse linen fabrics are
now used, the corn husk cloth, as already man-
ufactured, is weli adapted. If the process of
manufacture can be so improved, as the invent-
or claims, as to make finer qualities equally
well, the importance of this new process can
hardly be overrated. In this country especial-
ly, where the raw material is already produced
in the utmost abundance, the discovery of these
new qualities will be like the creation of a new
article of manufacture, that shall cost nothing
in the outset, and be capable of supplying one
of our most costly wants."

  SW The British Parliament has appropria-
ted £116,696 (about $58&000) for scientific
and art institutions for the present year. There
are 88 schools of art and science, in which
are 91,741 students, forwhich £46,700 are ap-
plied. The South oensington Museum receives
£88,690; the Geological Society, £11,000-
The British Museum receives a specific dona-
tion not included in the above.

  "06 Thf use of the arch in building is
traced to Thebes, where one was discovered
that bore an inscription dated 1540 B. C., or
460 years before Solomon's temple was built.



.