The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-11-21
POPULAR SCIENCE.

POPULAR SCIENCE. !
BIG GUNs.-The Prussians fiatter |
themselves that they have the most
powerful guns in the world in the re-
cent specimens added to their artillery
as siege guns. Their performances are
remarkable. With a charge of 1875
pounds of powder they project a cast
iron shell Ot 600 pounds with an initial
velocity of 1905 feet per second, which
is said to have never been attained be-
fore by any rified gun. At distance
of 1900 PAGES, or 988 yards, these guns
send the shell clean through 14-incl
armor plate and backing.
CANDLES FROM VEGETABLE Wax
China.annually exports large quantities
of vegetable wax to England for man
ufacture into candles. It is obtained
from three different species of trees or
shrubs, being an emulation caused by
the puncture of an insect. In time.
this emulation becomes dry and pow
derry, resembling hoar-frost, in which
state it is scraped off, and the crude
material freed from impurities by
spreading it on a strainer covering
cylindrical vessel of boiling water.
The waxis received in the former vessel,
and, on congealing, is ready for use.
Thousands of tons are yielded in the
course of year but whether the waxy
matter is the product of the animal, or
exuded by the plant in consequence of
being punctured, is not yet satisfactO-
rily determined.
THE WEIGHT OF AR.-Little as we
realize the wight of gaseous bodies, it is
meteorologically certain that one
cubic mile of atmostphereric air weighs
over five millions six hundred thousand
tons, and one cubic mile of pure ny
drogen, the lightest known substance,
weighs no less than three hundred and
cighty-nine thousand tons. It will,
therefore, appear somewhat startling to
those who laugh at the terrors of our
fOrefathers, comets, to learn that such a
gaseous body has an enormous weight,
and it's mass is not less than that of an
asteroid. It would have, if reduced to
the density of the earth, a diameter
somewhere between thirty-tWo and two
hundred and thirty-seven miles and
if reduced to the density of a sphere of
lead, would have a diameter which may
approximately be put at least as high
us fifty miles
THE TAHus SToNE.-The Smithsonian
institution has been advised of the
shipment, on the part of the khedive of
Egypt, of a fine copy in plaster of the
celebrated tanis stone. This stone, as
it may be remembered, was found some
years ago near one of the mouths of the
Nile, and contains long priestly histo-
ry carved on its three faces, in hero
glyphic, Greek, and Egyptian respec-
lively; the Greek thus furnishing an in
depreciation to the other two. This
answers the same purpose as the rosetta
stone, in supplying key for decipher.
ing the ancient Egyptian characters,
and is in some respects superior to that
as having a more extensive vocabulary
With the tanis stone have also been
shipped to the institution over one
hundred impressions In paper, OF
" squeezes," of bas-reliefs taken from
various monuments in Egypt, many o.
which have a very great interest.
PETROLEUM REFINING. The cheap
ness of labor in Europe, and also the
lower cost of chemicals, give not only
the English, but the French and Ger.
mans, great advantages over us in the
business of refining. The acids used in
the process cost here fully twice as
much as in Europe, and the wages OF
still tenders and other Iaborers are
about So a week, against $40 in New
York and at the wells. Our crude pc,
troleum can be taken across the water,
refined, and returned here and sold il
competition with our manufacturers
1t appears possible then, and even pro
babe, that this vast industry will soor
pass out of our hands entirely. The
foreign exporters are building vessels
to carry the oil in bulk, thus avoiding
the loss on barrels, which has hitherto
been considerable. The value to tn,
country of this refining industry i
stated to be as high as $50, 900, 900, al
item of income of no mean Importance
The CHEMISTS IN MUDDLE.-There
cent discovery of a French chemis
that hydrogen is not an element
but a compound of a still lighte
substance now known as abaron, ha
considerably startled scientific investi
gators. Indeed, the discovery, it /
thought, may lead to another cOmplet
revolution in the nomenclature O
chemistry and one much greater tina,
the last, the distinctive feature of whic
is the possible composition of atoms i
an elemental mOlecule. AT the frs
blush it might seem that the number c
the ultimate elements would be indef
nitely multiplied by further discoverie
in the same direction, and that, instea
If "a, we may have several hundreds
But the reverse of this would most pre-
badly be the truth and the result ma
be even to realize the theory tha
the number of attainable element
is very small, while they, in turn, ar
distinguished from each other simpI
by a difference in the molecular grour
ings of atoms, each of which has DR.,
cisely the same magnitude, and volum,
and potential function, with every othe
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