D.
Hbe Conservative * 5
the Amoricau public when they over-
cliai'ge at home while meeting compe
tition abroad. The policy is not only
illiberal , but it suggests that undue advantage -
vantage is taken of the generous pro
visions of the tariff. AH an illustration
the Chicago Tribune says :
"A few weeks ago a British member
of Parliament said that Mr. Schwab ,
President of the Steel corporation , had
told him that it-could deliver steel bil
lets in England for $10.50 per ton , while
the lowest price for which British man
ufacturers could make them was $19.
At the time Mr. Schwab made this
statement his company was underselling
the British manufacturers at home , and
was demanding from $26. to $27. a ton
from the American consumer. It is
unfortunate that the Commission could
not induce Mr. Schwab to explain why
his corporation puts such a high price
on steel billets at Pittsburg when it
sells them for so low a price in England.
If it can afford to sell billets there at
$10.20 a ton , why does it ask $10 a ton
more for them on this side of the ocean ?
An explanation is needed. " Philadel
phia Ledger , Jan. 7 , 1902.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
One acre of the sago palm , which is
one of India's valuable products , gives
nourishment equal to 163 acres of
wheat.
The earliest known hot-water heating
is curiously traced to Greenland , where
the * strangely forgotten colony of Nor
wegians had increased to 190 villages in
the fourteenth century. A German
author was told in 1510 of the heating
and cooking by water in pipes from a
hot spring , the ruins of the colony were
located in 1723 , and the hot spring was
some years ago seen by an American
artist.
The military telephone system of
Captain Charollois , which is rapidly
coming into use in the French and Ger
man armies , permits the laying of the
bare wire upon the ground when not
too wet. The wire , usually about one-
fortieth of an inch in diameter , is of a
special alloy known as Martin bi-inetal ,
and it is so light that a man can easily
carry 8 or 4 miles of it , reeling it off at
2 % miles an hour. With a microphone
transmitter and adjustable receiver the
line can be worked up to 6 miles.
One of the most human-like apes yet
described is a young gibbon that Prof.
Ernst Haeckel has kept in view several
months at Buitenzorg , Java. The
species is known as Hylobatcs Leuciaus ,
called by the natives "Oa , " on account
of its characteristic sound , and is
scarcely taller than a child of six years.
The head is quite small , the waist
slender , the legs short , and the arms
much longer. The face is more man
like than that of the prang , and its ex
pression suggests an insolvent banker ,
with brow wrinkled with worry over
disaster. Though distrusting white
Europeans , the animal became intimate
with the brown Malays , especially with
the children. He always walked or ran
on two legs , the few sounds of his
' "speech were greatly varied , he drank
milk and cocoa and sweet wine from a
cup , and he peeled and ate oranges and
bananas just as the observer himself
would. Most Malays look upon the
gibbons as bewitched men and the
orang-outangs as criminals undergoing
punishment.
The air of heated rooms is changed
quite rapidly through the walls in cold
weather. More than twenty years ngo ,
Flugge estimated that this "spontaneous
ventilation" would completely renew
the air of small rooms every hour when
the difference between inside and out
side temperature is 25 ° F. ; but a some
what slower rate has been obtained since
by H. Wolpert in measuring the hourly
diminution of an excess of carbonic
acid in an unoccupied room. In a room
of 2000 cubic feet , with painted walls ,
the passage of air per hour for each de
gree of temperature difference was
somewhat less than ono-hundredeth of
the total air of the room. But the rate
was considerably greater with masonry
walls covered with paper , and three
times as rapid with ordinary white
washed walls.
In the novel steam-generator of Mr.
Henry Braby , an Australian inventor ,
the water tubes to the number needed
are bored lengthwise through flat
copper blocks three inches or more
thick , the ends of the holes being con
nected by semi-circular bends so as to
form a continuous tube from one side of
the block to the other. The blocks are
so arranged that the hot gtises from the
furnace pass around the lower one be
neath a second , and around this beneath
a similar series of tubes in the cast iron
top of the boiler. The water is fed into
the iron tube , where it becomes heated ,
then it posses successively through the
top and bottom series of copper tubes ,
and enters a receiver as steam under a
pressure of 100 pounds or more. It is
claimed that , for the same power , this
generator occupies only a tenth of the
space of a multi-tubular boiler and is
only a fourth as heavy , while it cannot
be exploded , is self cleaning , and it can
be heated to 100 horse-power capacity
in ten minutes.
Not the least striking lesson in evolution
lution has been given by modern poul
try shows. A half-century ago Darwin
enumerated 18 varieties of fowls as
known to him , giving pictures typical
of the various races : but Mr. W. B.
Tegetmeier , who selected the specimens
thus illustrated , states that not one of
the figures would be accepted by the
present fanciers as furnishing any idea
of the development of salient points.
Some breeds , in fact , have been im
proved almost out of existence. The
Spanish fowl has had its comb increased
to four times its former size , the white
skin on the face has so developed as to
blind the old bird , and the ear lobe has
increased to eight inches in length and
an area of some thirty square inches ,
but the creature has become practically
useless as a layer of eggs. The old
English Dorking has been least changed ,
having .simply increased in size. The
offer of large prizes has not only led to
the production of innumerable new
breeds , by selection and crossing , but
has caused fancy points to be so
exaggerated that the resulting mon
strosities have no value except in show
ing how far a living organism may be
artificially varied. At the latest Lon
don show , the different varieties ot
fowls were represented in 281 classes.
Each decade brings a lengthening of
average life. In 1900 the deaths in 271
cities of 5,000 population or more were
18.5 per 1,000 , whereas the death rate
in the same cities in 1890 was 21 per
1,000. ,
Whether nil rays of light and other
physical rays are , or are not , transmitted
with the same velocity seems to bo a
lifficult problem. The Franklin Insti-
; ute's Boyden prize for an answer has
jeon before the public since 1859 , and
ias increased from $1,000 to more than
$3,000.
THE GUESSING CONTEST.
The Press Publishing Co , of Detroit ,
sends us the following statement rel
ative to the recent election contest :
Det-roit , Mich , December , 1901.
Owing to the numerous letters we
are daily receiving from all sections
of the United States and Cananda
concerning our recent Canadian Cen
sus Contest and our Election Contest ,
embracing the votes for governor in
the states of Iowa , Ohio and Massa
chusetts , we have deemed it wise to
prepare a general statement as it is
impossible to answer each of these
numerous letters personally
Relative to our Election Contest , wo
have obtained the certificate of the
secretary of the state of Ohio giving
the official vote for governor as 827,500.
We have received an unofficial state
ment from the secretary of the state
of Iowa giving the vote for governor
as 890,441. The unofficial statement of
the secretary of the state of Massa
chusetts gives the vote of that state
as 824,526 , making a total of 1,542,588.
This number , however , may be re
vised by the official certificate of the
vote of Iowa and Massachusetts.
At the close of the Contests , all es
timates were turned over to the com
mittee on awards , consisting of the
Hon. Wm. 0. May bury , mayor of De
troit ; Hon. Joseph W. Donovan , judge
of the Wayne circuit court , and the
Rev. Chas. L. Arnold , rector of St.
Peter's church , Detroit , Mich. This
committee annotated Mr. Henry Otis.
accountant of the Detroit National
Bank , to take charge of all data and
tabulate the returns.
As soon as the official certificates
can be obtained showing the total vote
of the spates named , Mr. Otis , under
the directions of the committee on
awards , will ascertain who are en
titled to receive the prizes and the
committee will make the awards ac
cordingly.
We have not yet been a"ble to obtain
the official figures showing the popu
lation of Canada. The same committee
have that matter in charge and as soon
as the result can bo obtained the
prizes in that contest will be awarded.
On account of not receiving the official
report of the population of Canada we
have been unable to issue our cata
logue
We will furnish full particulars , as
to who receives the prizes , to all par
ticipants in our Election and Canadian
contests as soon as the awards are
made.
We enclose herewith details of our
next contest and shall be pleased to
have you consider the same.
Very respectfully ,
PRESS PUBLISHING ASS'N.
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