The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-07-19
sc1ENrrr1cA1 AND HEcHAx1cA1.

EXPLOSIVE PowER.-Pure sodium ha.
III enormous explosive power when q small
amount of water is poured upOn it.
| spoonful of water poured upon two hundred
ounces of sodium, would occasion nm explo-
sion equal to that of five thousand pounds
ct gunpowder, or five hundred pounds of
nitro glycerine.
Ice MADE IN DRAwING-RooM.-T
operative chemists sell small glass vessels
winch are called test tubes ; they are of thin
glass, and hold from one to four drachms,
and are very useful for the purpose of trying
small experiments. The following is a simple
and singular method of freezing water Ask
mamma to lend you a jam jar, fill the same
with powdered sulphate of soda; now pour
on the saline material IA much muriatic
acid as will render it semi fluid, then fill a
test-tube with water as cold as you can pro-
cure, and put it into the centre of the
chemical mixture; let it remain at rest for
ten minutes or SO; finally take out the tube
and wipe it dry you will find the water
frozen. To get the ice out of the tube, dip
the latter for few seconds into warm
water, invert it and the cylinder of ice will
then fall into your hand.
WONDERS OF AusrRALIA,-In this re-
mote part of the earth, NATURE having made
hofses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and
AL regular and useful productions for the
rest OF the world, seems determined to have
:" oiS VA P1stS anu W stnuSc nefSclI as she
pieases. Accordingly, she makes cherries
with the stone on the outside: and a mon
str0us animal, as tall as Il grenadier, with
the head of Il rabbit, tail as big MS a bed
post, hopping along at the rate of i've hops
to mile, with three or four young kanga-
roos looking out of its false uterus, to see
what is passing. Then comes quadruped
as big as large cat, with the eyes, color,
and skin of mole, and the bill and web
feet of duck, pulling DR.. Shaw, and rem
dering the latter half Of his life miserable
from his utter inability to determine
whether it was bird or q beast. Add to
this parrot with the legs of a sea- gull
a skate with the head of n shark and o bird
of such monstrous dimensions that side
bone Of it will dine three real carnivorous
Englishmen; together with many other
PRODUCTIONS that agitated Sir Joseph Banks,
and filed him with emotions of distress and
delight.-Sydaey Smith.
Admiral Farragut's letters, describing his
visit to England, is an account of the Ruth
ven hydraulic propeller, which has been
applied to an English iron-clad of seven
hundred tons, the Water Witch This pro-.
peller, as it is termed, is very different from
Water rises from below into box, when O
rotary pump, worked by steam, throws it
with great violence into two square boxes
placed at,the outside of the vessel, one in
eacn slue, nearly amldshlps and near the
water line. These boxes are square tubes.
ten or twelve feet long and twelve inches in
diameter, open at both ends.-Near the
centre is n valve, under charge of the officer
of the deck, and as he turns it the water is
thrown with great force, either forward or
aft, thus propelling the vessel ahead or
astern mt his will. The admiral took q trim
on the Water Witch, and was surprised that
she sailed ut speed of seven or eight miles
ap hour, against a fresh breeze and quite q
sea, and under more favorable circum-
stances made nine knots. There was no in
terruption of the machinery, and the move
ments OF the vessel are wholly controlled
yering the valves spoken of, can go ahead,
back astern, or turn the vessel on her center.
The admiral says that ON her return she
was kept ut a speed of nine knots within
fifty or sixty yards of the shore, when she
suddenly checked and brought to the wharf
with infinitely more ease than any steamer
he eyer saw.