The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-10-22
POPULAR SCIENCE.

grains OF water to every cubic foot OF
bulk.
A pint OF water converted into
steam fills a space of about l 800
pints.
The number Of optic nerve fbers is
43S. 900, and Of retinal cones in each
human eye, 3,3e0,00O.
Strychnine, when administered in
heavy doses to mammals. acts, &C
cording to NJ. Richet. partly like
ehloral and partly like cursre.
In 1868 japan exported Is, 584 tons
of coal and 9I5 tons for ships use,
but in 1878 the export OF coal was
90, 064 tons. with Ill, 785 tons for the
Use of vessels.
The phenomenon known as the
will-o'-the-wisp and igniS .tatuuS, is
simply the phosphoretted hydrogen
gas which rises from stagnant water
and marshes.
Adolph Mayer has discovered that
oxygen has no direct influence upon
fermentation. When potassium-hy-
drogen tartrate was added to strong
strip containing yeast, the cells OF
the yeast grew rapidly and the fer
mentation was easily accomplished.
The Russian battlefelds of the year
1872 are still being explored for
bones, which are converted into bone
black. 1t may thus happen that a
man of the present day may consume
sugar which has been decolorized and
purified by means of the bones OF his
forefsthers.
An observer of beet-root cultivation
has announced that the production of
beet-root sugar can be greatly in
creased by the careful artificial selec.
ton of the beet. The saccharine
produce of the sugar cane, on the
Contrary, remains stationary, il it
does not retrograde, and come think
thst the continual multiplication from
stoions gives rise to disease OF various
kinds.
Zsntmsyer is esid to have contrived
a stage for his new microscope which
has virtually no thickness whatever.
By placing the slide below the stage
instead of above, every impeachment
to employment OF illuminating pen
ellis OF extreme obliquity is done away
with. The object is secured beneath
the stage by pair OF spring clips.
When required, the contrivsnce can
be removed and the usual stage sub
stituted.
It seems that Vienna is exporting
large numbers of false turquoises,
closely resembling genuine ones.
The backs OF every specimen are
pecked out and the holes filled with |
q black cement to initiate the matrix |
of La Vieille Roche. The spurious
are little lighter than the real tur.
quoises, but the specific gravity test is
not to be altogether relied upon. An
expert in gems advises purchasers to
scrape of the mstrix, and if the speei-
men is spurious the artificial perfors-
tions will be revealed.
A mixture of sulphur and grease
has been in use for some time as q
lubricant for the bearings of heavy
Sulphur alone, as is we'll
known, mas the effect, when properly
OF cooling hot bearing.
But why sulphur should 60 act
mas not been well understood. Won
Heeren offers this explanation: Fine
dust is formed when a journal
becomes hot, and this dust, combin-
ing with the sulphur, produces q soft
and greasy compound Of decidedly
character.
How olosely Japan lie following in
he footsteps of the west may be seen
n the fact that the Japanese work.
men have adopted q trades-union
ystem, which they will find by and
~ is not altogether so good a thing !
Is they suppose. In their first struggle
With their employers in the province :
# Mino, where rice has risen in
,rce, rise of wages WAS obtained,
o that carpenter who was paid
twenty-five sen now gets thirty sen,
nd the lsborer who was paid sixteen 7
en- six rim new gets twenty sen. '
Major Majendi, in speaking OF the
gnition OF gunpoWder by simple per- e
ussion, says: There is ample testi-
nouy that gunpowder can be explo-
ed by q blow with comparative ease,
be fact being that the temperature
which gunpowder explodes (sbout I
400 to 560') lie readily reached by :
ercussion or friction 1.-THE powder be .
} placed that there is no absorption
{ the energy by the cushioning ofthe
low, and this temperature is long
ay within that at which heat be-
omes visible. Copper tools may be
lade to give out sparkle. have had q
luch experience in this in some ex-
eriments which have made. The
reat thing for young men to avoid,
hatever tools they use, even wooden
lols, is the exercise of force beyond I
hat is absolutely necessary, or dis
Ter may follow" v