The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-04-18
SCIENCE AND INVENTION.

structures be destroyed after having
been In use 10 or 10 years. He advises
this course because hospital buildings
become In time impregnated with poison
Gus exhalations, which, respired by a
certain class of patients, conduce to
provoke erysipelas and cOgnate disease,
thus complicating the original ailment,
| and putting human life in extra peril.
"A French engineer and inventor,
named Tommasi, has recently perfected
an invention for transmitting messages
under water, which is attracting con-
siderable attention and comment. It
consists of simple tube of copper, con-
tanning what may be termed thread or
rod of water, which is said to transmit
effectually and simultaneously every
impulse communicated to it by pistons :;
and not only that, but the impulses can
travel both ways at once without ex-
tinguishing each other The inventor
claims that with this apparatus he can
send 600 signals per minute through a
distance of 2, 400 miles; that it permits
simultaneous exchange of correspon-
dence through the same tube; that it
can be adapted to any recording instru-
ment whatever and that it is durable
and economical.
"A New method of curing Stammer-
ing has been practiced for some time
past by M. Cherim of Lyons, the efficacy
of which is vouched for by commission
ofscientifc medicine gentlemen especial
ly appointed to investigate and report
thereon. The entire course of treat
ment occupies three weeks. During
the first period, the sufferer is restrict
L. L. II l.. l.. L
his vicious habit in articulating in the
second stage, he is exercised in the
deliberate and distinct pronunciation of
fences, uttered while the breath is
evenly expelled from the lungs after
slow and full inspiration; and the
final stage is devoted to acquiring
fuency of speech. This method is re-
ported to have proved efficacious in the
worst cases, and the permanency of the
cure is assured if the patient will oc-
casionally practice by himself the ex-
ercises taught.
AT late meeting of the American
association, Prof. Lowering of Harvard
university mentioned the following curl
Gus illustrations When the first sus-
pension bridge was being built in Eng
land, fiddler offered to fiddle it away.
Striking one note after another, he
eventually hit its vibrating note, or
fundamental tone, and threw it into
such extraordinary vibrations that the
builders begged him to desist. Only
recently in France bridge went down
under the tread of infantry, who had
not broken step, and 800 were drowned
An experiment is often referred to of
tumbler or small glass vessel being
broken by the frequent repetition of
some particular note of the human voice
In the Talmud a curious question is
raised as to what would be the damage
if vessel were broken by noise made
by an animal, such as barking dog.
GLYCERINE IN BOILERS. the last
sednce of the Society of Civil Engineers,
Paris, M. E. Asselin recommended the
use of glycerine to prevent incrustation
in steam boilers. Glycerine, soluble in
water in every proportion, increases the
solubility of combinations of lime, and
especially of the suIphate; it appears
besides to form with these combinations
soluble compounds. When the quality
of lime becomes so great that it can no
longer be dissolved, nor form with the
glycerine soluble combinations, it is
deposited in a gelatinous substance,
which never adheres to the surface of
the iron plates. Moreover, the gelatin
Gus substances thus formed are not car
ried with the steam into the cylinder or
the engine. NJ Asselin advises the en-
ployment of one pound of glycerine for
every 800 or 400 pounds of coal burnt,
fifteen days supply being introduced at
once. From trials made with boilers
fed with bad water, it was proved that
the glycerine combined with all the
salts, and left the plates perfectly clean.
is any change produced on a man by
a change in the velocity of his motion
round the axis of the earth a? If a
dweller in latitude go degrees were sud
denly to change his residence to the
equator he would double his velocity.
At latitude 60 degrees he travels round
with the earth at the rate of 500 miles
an hour at the equator, 1000 miles an
hour. Again, at latitude 70 degrees the
Greenlander is lazily carried round 40
an hour; while the man at the North
pole calmly revolves once in "a hours.
OF course the motion is unfeit, be-
cause all things move together but the
change from the tropical to an arctic
climate is so great that it may possibly
produce physical or mental effects, of
which we are as yet unconscious. Of
course the steering of ship from north |
to south must be sensible affected bv !
the constant acceleration from west to |
east. On the long railways of Russia. |
too, it is said that the rails are uniformly |
more worn on one side than on the other, |
in consequence of the force.
The "singing flame, which at first |
view might seem to be merely a curious |
phenomenon, is found to be, in fact a |
discovery of very high Importance for |
science and the useful arts. One of the |
latest applications of this principle is |
that made by DIR. A. K. Irvine of the |
British iron and steel institute, who |
makes use of the singing flame in the |
construction of a safety-lamp for mines. |
If an explosive mixture of infammable |
gas and air be passed through and ig-
nited on the surface of disk of wire |
gauZe too fine to suffer the flame to
traverse it, and tken, surrounded by
chimney, to prevent air from entering, /
save through the gauze, the fame
and the vibration, being COM
municated to the ascending gases, pro-
duces a sound varying in pitch and in
CSAo4Iy ffCSoIulnS 10 tIle nelSDG ana call
Der of the chimney. A lamp constructed
on this principle will give timely warning
to the miner whenever the atmosphere
and the fire-damp are coming together
in the proportions requisite for an ex-
plosion. POPULAR Science Monthly.
Discoveries of human fossil remains
are apt to be subjects of much difference
of opinion among the learned; but the
last instance of the kind is apparently
an exception to the rule. This was the
discovery, early IN the year, by DIR. E /
Rivers, of human skeleton, in a cavern
near the railroad from Mentone to
in northern Italy. The cave
is one of a series in compact limestone
and the limestone quarries near by have
immense quantities of bones
md teeth of bears, gigantic stays, ny (