The United States is fairly running away from the rest of the world in the production of iron and steel. For the first half of the present calendar year, the production was 8,803,574 tons, an increase of 1,130,000 tons, or 14 per cent, over the same period a year ago. A noticeable feature about the industry is that it has made this wonderful increase in the output while the export of iron and steel has very considerably fallen off. The decrease in iron and steel export the last fiscal year is placed at $20,000,000. So enormous and rapid has been the growth of the home demand, that it not only offset the partial loss of the foreign markets and the huge increase in domestic supplies, but also drew heavily upon what may be called the home reserve supply.

Over 200,000 telephones are reported in use by farmers, connecting their homes with neighboring villages. The wire fencing is frequently utilized for the lines. Many of our readers could easily construct such lines.

According to information published by the United States Treasury Bureau of Statistics, there are 1,750 submarine telegraph lines in the world, the aggregate length of which is nearly 200,000 miles. The number of messages annually transmitted over these lines exceeds 6,000,000.

Canada annually consumes nearly 3,000,000 tons of anthracite coal, all of which comes from Pennsylvania. The prolonged strike has changed the situation to such an extent that this summer no coal was delivered, and a serious fuel famine confronts the people of this latitude. This condition of affairs has given a tremendous impetus to the manufacturing of peat for fuel all over the Province.

The use in the vinyard district of France of specially constructed cannons to bombard approaching storms and prevent destructive hail, is considered to still be in the experimental stage.

A German electrical journal describes a new galvanic cell which " inhales " the oxygen of the air. The cell contains, in a saturated ammonium chloride solution, a zinc rod and a porous pot provided with a semi-porous membrane. Within the porous vessel is placed a retort carbon, and the vessel contains a special depolarizing liquid. This depolarizing liquid constitutes a sort of chemical sponge, which, when in the air, absorbs the oxygen thereof, and gives it off again in the process of depolarization. The depolarizer consists of ammonium cuprate.

Consul-General O. J. D. Hughes reports from Coburg, that experiments were recently carried out at a colliery, near Saarbrucken, Germany, with lime, tar, and carbolineum to determine the respective value thereof as preservatives of mine timber against rot. Lime was found to be of the least value, while coal tar, although insuring perfect perservation of the surface of the timber, failed to protect the interior, which in every instance was found to be seriously attacked by rot. Carbolineum, however, gave excellent results, provided the timber coated had been previously barked and well dried.