Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-04-03
Popular Science Notes.

ence, property valued at 81 $780,
go.
An electric locomotive has been
manufactured and successfully op-
Grated on the street railway of
Berlin.
The longest submarine cable ia
the world, is that along the east
! coast OF Africa, from Natal to
Alden, it being 1000 miles in
/ length.
A railway has just been finished
for the ascent of Mount Vesuvius.
1t Is 500 meters in length, and
| will enable tourists to ascend by 1t
to the crater in safety.
The deepest we'll in the world
is the one recently at Buna Pesth,
Hungary, being 8, 200 feet in depth.
The temperature of the water it
yields is nearly 165 Fair.
The electric light is coming into
general use on board of steam
ships, and passengers and seamea
alike express themselves as highly
deli 5hted with the new method of
| illumination.
The very bright star now to be
seen near the horizon, about due
south, is "Sirius," the dog star.
and it is estimated by astronomers
that it gives US four times as much
light as any other star visible in
our latitude.
A new comet was discovered
last month by Astronomer Gill, at
Cape Town, South Africa. The
new CELESTIAL visitor is approaching
the sun but will not probably be
visible in this country, without
the aid of telescope.
The reasons generally given by
scientists for the phenomenon OF
hearing sound farthest just before
storm is that the air being moist,
has more than its normal conduct
ing power, and that the low lying
strata of clouds confine the sounds
to the earth.
1t is estimated that about 5000
miles of new road are now under
contract, and it is thought by men
in position TO know that more
miles or railroad will be built dur.
ing 1880 in the United States than
during any year before.
An artesian well was completed
at Davenport, iowa, last, week, at
a depth of 900 feet. The pressure
i: is said carries the water twenty
five feet above the surface Of the
earth. The stream is six inches
in diameter and flows at the rate of
400 gallons of water per minute.
The manufacture of Glucose is
becoming one of the most extern
sive industries in this country.
Corn sugar is now used for all the
various purposes for which any
sugar is used, except for first-class
confectionery, and is not only used
largely in this country, but great
shipments are constantly being
made to Europe, where it is in
great demand.
Scientists have adopted the theo-
ry that the duration of animal life
should be five times the growth
of the animal or being. Thus,
man gets his growth in twenty
years and should live to be one
hundred years old. The camel is
eight years in growing and live
fOrtya years. The horse reaches
maturity in five years, and seldom
lives beyond twenty five; and so
with other animals.
The physical consequences of
death continue to battle scientists,
and instead of the progress of sci
ence adding anything of import
ance to what has always been
known, it has rather tended to
deepen the distinction between
the visible part, which perishes
before our eyes, and that which
we are ourselves, and to show that
this personality, with respect to its
| nature as we'll AS to its destiny, lies
quite beyond the range of science.
More wonderful than the Tele-
phone in its magic workings, is
that of the "Diaphote," a newly
invented instrument by which per-
sons are enabled to see by electric
| ty. Its inventor, DR.. II. E. Licks,
of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, calls
| it 10y this name, from two Greek
words, die through, and phos,
light. Or. Licks exhibited his in
struments to a number of scientific
men at his home recently, to the
utter as enlistment of all. The
two instruments used, one being
in the second story of the build
ing, the other in the parlor below,
were connected by means of an or
binary telegraph wire, and charg-
ed with electricity. A newspaper
being placed before one of them
was easily read by the audience at
the other end of the line. Its in