One gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds and contain 231 cubic inches. One cubic foot of water weighs 68.5 pounds and contains 1728 cubic inches or 7.5 gallons. A miner's inch is a flow of water equal to 1.5 cubic feet per minute, or 11.25 gallons per minute.

All the salt ponds on Turk islands, West Indies, are owned by the government and are leased on a royalty of 70 cents per 100 bushels shipped. This goes into the general revenue; a further tax of 10 per cent, on the industry is charged for the upkeep of the ponds and roads leading to them.

Herodotus says that Croesus was the first sovereign to make coins of gold

In the bulbs of incandescent lamps it is noted that the incandescence is no longer produced if the proportion of oxide of cerium added to the oxide of thorium is less than 1 per cent. The incandescence is due to an oscillatory oxidation-that is to say, one that is alternately produced and extinguished. When oxidated the cerium might combine with thorium, when there would soon be decomposition, then reoxidation and combination, and so on. These reactions, produced millions of times a second, occasion the luminous oscillations of the ether which produce incandescence.

The chemical composition and character of crude petroleum oils vary greatly in the different localities where the oils are found. They are all complex hydrocarbon compounds. The more carbon they contain the greater their specific gravity and the higher the temperature required to evaporate them. The petroleums of Russia belong generally to what is known as the naphthene series. Those of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado and Wyoming have a paraffine base, and those of California and Texas have an asphalt base.